Woman dead and undiscovered in her flat for five years

[aussiegirl 10]

This is a very valid point. It should not be beyond the expertise of programmers to put a marker on accounts (bank, utilities, council tax et al) which flags up when an account goes dormant ie nothing in or out.

 

Whilst I appreciate where you are coming from I don't think it is the responsibility of these organisations to do this - it is our responsiblity to notice that our neighbours have not been seen or that you have not seen the lights on or the lights are on all the time and so on.

[chinaski 10]

She was lucky not to be bothered for 5 years. In these days of instant communication it shows a strength of character. I'd have lasted a week before I'd have had to pick the phone up.

[skinnydog 10]

Unfortunatly, people who have no one in their life like this usually have a good reason for that.

[funkymiss 10]

Unfortunatly, people who have no one in their life like this usually have a good reason for that.

 

Yeah, maybe if she had no children, no friends and her relatives had either died or lost touch. It's hard to imagine if you have these things and easy to forget how lonely some people must be, especially in old age.

[FabulousInc 10]

Yeah, maybe if she had no children, no friends and her relatives had either died or lost touch. It's hard to imagine if you have these things and easy to forget how lonely some people must be, especially in old age.

 

I agree. What a horrible way to die though.

[millhouses24 10]

I'm feeling rebellious so I'm gonna say that I wouldn't really want to live somewhere where my neighours felt the need to "check" on me.

 

I don't know who my neighbours are or what their lives are like, and don't expect or want them to know who I am or what my life is like. If one of them banged on my door in an emergency, I would happily help out, but other than that I'm a bit meh.

 

There is a good chance that I will die a single old woman and be undiscovered for days if I'm still in my own home. But as long as I've had a good life before that, I don't realy mind. The thing is, some people enjoy spending a lot of time on their own. Just like some people enjoy having a partner and lots of relatives and friends and social stuff going on. Everyone's different.

 

(anyways, it won't be me having to clean the mess up so who cares?)

[Reg Reader 10]

I live alone and can sometimes go weeks without being in touch with someone. It's par for the course really. If it worried me enough I could consider a female but it hardly seems worth it just for someone to know when I'm dead.

[millhouses24 10]

I live alone and can sometimes go weeks without being in touch with someone. It's par for the course really. If it worried me enough I could consider a female but it hardly seems worth it just for someone to know when I'm dead.

 

Yes, it's all rather Bridget Jones! :-)

 

"I need to find a partner otherwise I'll end up all lonely with my corpse being eaten by Alsations!".

 

Someone could eat me or have me stuffed when I'm dead. It won't make a shred of difference.

[hennypenny 10]

I suppose you might be more bothered if you were lying there with a broken thigh, which would be fully mendable if only there were someone to check on you though?

I don't so much mind the idea of being dead and not found, but the idea of lying there unable to move and in pain slowly starving to death doesn't much appeal.

[Guest]

I'm feeling rebellious so I'm gonna say that I wouldn't really want to live somewhere where my neighours felt the need to "check" on me. ...

I do believe that tall fences make for good neighbours. However, I would hope that when I eventually turn into the cantankerous mad old cat women I'm destined to be, my neighbours might check up on me if they hadn't seen me for a little while, if only to prevent me being gnawed at by my starving cats while I'm slowly succumbing to some disease or other.

 

From the story, the old lady in question seemed to be rather free-spirited and independent; apparently she was one for taking off hiking on her own somewhere, and keeping the communal garden weed-free. She'd often stop to talk to folk too. While I can respect and relate to that attitude, it does seem inordinately sad that of those who saw her around, who spoke to her, who lived just a few yards from her, not one thought to knock on her door when she wasn't seen in the garden with her trowel. I do hope she didn't suffer before she died. It's awful to think that she might have been too weak to summon help.

 

While I don't much care what happens to me once I'm turning into fertiliser, it would be sad to think that no one alive would carry meaningful, intimate memories of me to their grave.

[Guest]

I live alone and can sometimes go weeks without being in touch with someone. It's par for the course really. If it worried me enough I could consider a female but it hardly seems worth it just for someone to know when I'm dead.

It's that pre-death phase you've got to worry about. Lots of selfish folk out their creating mini-me's so that they can be looked after in their dotage instead of being reliant on the whims of some Nurse Ratched-like care home matron. Hopefully. If you haven't managed to do a Philip Larkin on the offspring and propelled them off to Australia to wait for the inheritance.

 

Most folk want to live to a fine old age with all their marbles intact and a more or less functional body. Trouble is, if you do manage that, your peers might not.

 

If you don't want to spawn, then befriending the younger generation might be the way forward. That way you have the advantage of able-bodied support once arthritis and gout set in, without all that bother and expense of raising children yourself.

[Harleyman 12]

I'm surprised that none of the neighbours noticed her absence for so long.

 

The problem is that one can live in a block of flats but at the same time might as well live on a desert island. Neighbours should care more about each other. It would make a better world