Perils of living alone, with little outside . Tenant in my building died alone days ago..not discovered til today

Marie5656

Marie5656

Well-known Member
Location
Batavia, NY
Had a sad event in my building this afternoon. A tenant here reported a bad odor in her hallway..tracked to one particular apartment. The tenant in apt was found dead when maintanence went in. Determined he may have been dead a week or more. He kept to himself alot. Did not spend time in common areas, except to check his mail or go out for errands.
He had a couple daughters, not from area. So, a lot of comotion in building. If you live in senior housing, check on neighbors
 

Marie5656 said:
Had a sad event in my building this afternoon. A tenant here reported a bad odor in her hallway..tracked to one particular apartment. The tenant in apt was found dead when maintanence went in. Determined he may have been dead a week or more. He kept to himself alot. Did not spend time in common areas, except to check his mail or go out for errands.
He had a couple daughters, not from area. So, a lot of comotion in building. If you live in senior housing, check on neighbors
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Very sorry to hear that Marie, too bad someone wasn't checking on him more often. Rest in peace.
 
This evening, some of the regulars in the community room were discussing the event. Some of us were down there when the stuff was going down. Police coming and going. Med examiner, etc. Being a building filled with seniors..from 62, up to our oldest at 98, there is a lot of death, people going to nursing homes etc. Does not make it easier.
On a positive note, a lady on my floor who has been hospitalized/nursing home for a couple months, returned home today. We had thought she would not be back, but is home now. She had health issues earlier, and had expressed uneasiness at living alone. Which is why we thought she would not be back
 
Marie5656 said:
This evening, some of the regulars in the community room were discussing the event. Some of us were down there when the stuff was going down. Police coming and going. Med examiner, etc. Being a building filled with seniors..from 62, up to our oldest at 98, there is a lot of death, people going to nursing homes etc. Does not make it easier.
On a positive note, a lady on my floor who has been hospitalized/nursing home for a couple months, returned home today. We had thought she would not be back, but is home now. She had health issues earlier, and had expressed uneasiness at living alone. Which is why we thought she would not be back
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I'm glad that lady on your floor is back home, must be nice for her after months in a nursing home/hospital. I hope she continues to socialize and not feel so alone. Always thinking about you Marie, please take care. 💙
 
My condo building is not seniors only but a fair amount of people that buy are older. This has happened here and we have to be careful about asking the police for wellness checks because if they break the door down the hoa doesn’t pay to fix it and people get mad. We encourage people to leave an emergency contact so if someone hasn’t seen them in a while we could call them.

25 years ago the old guy above me died and after a week of no contact a family member got my number and called me. I knocked on his door and his car was in his space so his family called and he had been dead a week. Between my kids and friends someone would notice if it happened to me which is good because of my dogs.
 
So sorry, Marie, to have that happen in your building.

In my building a lady downstairs fell and laid on her bathroom floor for three days before two other people broke into her apartment. She was awake and alert but had to be taken to the ER and turned out she had a stroke. She came back home but was in and out of the hospital after that and finally passed away in the hospital. Sometimes you are just not sure if you should break into someone's apartment or not.

In my building there are some people who just want to be left alone. Some days I can go the whole day without seeing anyone even if I am in and out of my apartment. Other days, I have people knocking on my door needing to talk to someone. As for me, my son comes here almost every day. And my bf calls me every morning so if he didn't hear from me, he would be here.
 
Blessed said:
That is the one thing that scares me, not for me, but for my dogs. I do want them to be alone and not be taken care of.
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That is a very legitimate fear. Can you not make an arrangement with someone you know that if you do not phone them by a certain time each day, they should either phone you, come over to check things for themselves, or call 911 for a Wellness Check performed by the police?

This is a very serious problem. i've had many mutts myself. You don't want them suffering needlessly.
 
Marie5656 said:
Had a sad event in my building this afternoon. A tenant here reported a bad odor in her hallway..tracked to one particular apartment. The tenant in apt was found dead when maintanence went in. Determined he may have been dead a week or more. He kept to himself alot. Did not spend time in common areas, except to check his mail or go out for errands.
He had a couple daughters, not from area. So, a lot of comotion in building. If you live in senior housing, check on neighbors
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So sorry to hear this, Marie.
I’m sure it’s very unsettling.
 
This is so sad, I’ve heard of one lady here where I live the same thing happened, she had a daughter but they were estranged

Some places have a ‘Buddy System’ for Seniors where people phone each morning or at least let the phone ring 3 times just to say they’re alright

My daughter and I email every morning and FaceTime in the evening, if either of us hasn’t heard from the other by 9am we telephone
 


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