'A wonderful, wonderful sound': Man breaks down after hearing voicemail from his late wife that was lost for 14 years

'They've made this old age pensioner extremely happy'

(BBC)

A husband who thought the voicemail message of his late wife he had been saving was lost forever has been reunited with it after 14 years, describing hearing her voice again as "just a wonderful, wonderful sound".

Stan Beaton kept the outgoing voicemail message following his wife Ruby's death in 2003, but technical work carried out by Virgin Media caused it to be deleted.

The telecoms company managed to restore it however, much to the 68-year-old's delight.

"They've made this old age pensioner extremely happy," he said. "It's just a wonderful, wonderful sound that I thought was lost forever. I'm staggered at the lengths they have gone to."

The moment he was played the message back is in the video above, with the Mirfield man becoming overcome with emotion as what under different circumstances would just be a run of the mill voicemail plays.

"I've always resisted changing companies because whenever I mentioned that my wife's voice was our voicemail message and would it be retained and each company said no, so that's why I never changed," he told BBC Radio Leeds.

"Sadly it disappeared. I was absolutely devastated by it, but also extremely angry.

"In the early days [I listened to it] quite often. Basically it came to the point when if I felt low then I would listen to it.

"In December I learned that it had disappeared. I just could not tell people how it affected me at that time. It really did devastate me."