I just took a 3.5 mile walk and something strange happened. First I’ll stipulate to these caveats. I am bereaved and I am not in my right mind. I am looking for anything to help me cling to hope. I am looking for signs. I’ve been walking/running for about 8 months now using my iPhone and various running apps. The apps tend to be flaky which is one reason I keep changing. I walk with music and the music sometimes pauses. I also realized if I forget to put the phone on the lock screen, my leg will activate the touch screen and unpredictable things happen. So, I always put the lock screen on now before I put the phone in my pocket.
With all of that out of the way, while I was running, the music on my iPhone just stopped. I didn’t think much of it. It’s happened before, but as I said, usually because I haven’t put the lock screen on. It hasn’t happened in quite a while. I retrieved the phone from my pocket and was going to start it up again, but this time- for the first time ever- the phone said “iPhone Disabled Wait 1 minute”. I had never seen that happen before. Never got that message. I wondered if Ty or Kayla was playing around with the Find My iPhone app and had disabled my phone accidentally. After a minute I was able to get back into the phone, start my music and start running again. A few minutes later, the same thing happened again. The same message. I know the lock screen was on so it wasn’t an accidental touch. And again, I have never seen this message.
When I’m running now my mind is on Shayna constantly. I talk to her. I feel her close. I even pretended to be dancing with her a couple of days ago. When this happened the second time, I thought “Is Shayna messing with me?” Shayna and I had a connection through the phone. Shayna loved to grab everyone’s devices and change their lock screen to a picture of herself. She was constantly downloading apps, so a constant nuisance/reminder of her was all the apps I had to delete. She and I were the iPhone experts in the house. I thought maybe this is some sort of signal from Shayna. But, I’m an engineer and while I believe a lot of things some people would find bizarre, I am usually one to look for rational answers first. This had never happened with my phone in these many months and hundreds of runs. Maybe… just maybe Shayna was trying to reach me. I mean weird that this same thing happened twice and it had never happened before.
As I finish up my run, I have to cross a fairly busy street to get back into my own neighborhood It had been a few minutes since the second time the phone had locked up. I thought “If Shayna did that, I wonder if she could do it again.” A third time would be more impressive. It would be more like proof. Once is a fluke. Twice is really strange. Three times would be almost indisputable. But, I thought “No. That’s asking too much. You can’t ask for proof. Besides I doubt she could do it again.” At that moment, it happened a third time. Now there is no way I did this. The phone was in my pocket. I could not have triggered it subconsciously. The only way I know to get the phone to go to that screen would be to try to enter the password wrong three times. The first time it happened, I certainly didn’t expect it. The second time I didn’t expect it. The third time I was actually thinking negatively about it, thinking it could not happen again. It was at that moment that it happened.
Wow.
