When living alone, ever wonder who's going to know when you have passed?

[fancicoffee13]

I woke up early this morning wondering that very question. If I didn't wake up this morning, how long would it take for someone to call and see if I am ok. That is a scary thought. I am going to be turning 71 next month and am quite healthy. But, you never know when your time has come, healthy or not. I have a nurse that calls once a month, that is month to month.

 

[Warrigal]

I make sure that the neighbours opposite can see me moving around inside the house. That is easy to do since I have vertical blinds and no curtains. I close then at night and open them in the morning.

I also have a personal alarm that I can wear round my neck. If I have a fall it starts ringing useful phone numbers to alert them that I am down. As a last resort it will ring 000 to alert the ambulance service. It has GPS capacity so that they can find me.

 

[Paladin1950]

I'm sure after you pass, you will be in a better place, and you won't think much about it. You will check in and say, "Hey look! They finally found that I'm gone!" I live alone and don't think about things like that.

 

[fancicoffee13]

I make sure that the neighbours opposite can see me moving around inside the house. That is easy to do since I have vertical blinds and no curtains. I close then at night and open them in the morning.

I also have a personal alarm that I can wear round my neck. If I have a fall it starts ringing useful phone numbers to alert them that I am down. As a last resort it will ring 000 to alert the ambulance service. It has GPS capacity so that they can find me.

Thank you for that. I'll check into fall alert things.

 

[hawkdon]

I have the care lady call me on mon and fri to see if I'm still
flopping around...then too the mail boy would prob go into]
action if I were not at the door......

 

[C50]

My daughter lives close and we speak usually at least once a week. I told her if she ever can't reach me and gets worried to call the police to come check the house. I'd rather she not have to find me dead, especially if it's been several days, that's not a memory I want her to have.

 

[Paladin1950]

I found 2 family members dead. My mother, who I was living with after I returned from living in various big cities. I came home from work and opened the front door, and it hit me right away. I knew she was gone. I found her upstairs in her room on the floor.

The other was my Aunt who was a resident in the nursing home where I work. Finding two members of my family that had passed away, is enough for me. I don't want to go through with that again.

 

[Lara]

My next door neighbor, who lives alone, is starting to forget to turn off the stove and also has an iffy phone and lots of stairs to get out. She has come up with a plan for herself.

She's going to get 4 different color coded squares to choose from to put in her window for me to see when she is #1Home #2NotHome, #3Help, and #4...um, can't remember the 4th.

But I see holes in that plan, especially if she has already died. I think the best thing is a life alert necklace and/or a new phone. But she wont wear the life alert and prefers her cheap phone even though she has plenty of money. My mother had a Life Alert she wore but didn't always work when she had a few falls. She didn't pass alone thankfully.

 

[CallMeKate]

But I see holes in that plan, especially if she has already died.

Another hole, I think, would be that if she's been forgetting to turn the stove off, she may very well forget to use the color squares to alert you. (That said, I think it's a wonderful idea for her to want to set something up like that, and for you to want to be there to help her!)

 

[CallMeKate]

I woke up early this morning wondering that very question.

I've never thought about this... and won't now either. But I do realize that living in the neighborhood I do with many elderly people living alone, any of them could be dead in their houses and I'd never know it. Sobering. And disheartening... but I hope they have something in place so that someone would know.

 

[fancicoffee13]

I make sure that the neighbours opposite can see me moving around inside the house. That is easy to do since I have vertical blinds and no curtains. I close then at night and open them in the morning.I

I've never thought about this... and won't now either. But I do realize that living in the neighborhood I do with many elderly people living alone, any of them could be dead in their houses and I'd never know it. Sobering. And disheartening... but I hope they have something in place so that someone would know.

I also contacted my place of work and asked for a monitor. I think through them they are free since I worked for the state of Texas.

I also have a personal alarm that I can wear round my neck. If I have a fall it starts ringing useful phone numbers to alert them that I am down. As a last resort it will ring 000 to alert the ambulance service. It has GPS capacity so that they can find me.

 

[oldaunt]

It wouldn't bother me at all, except for the pets and caring for them. But my brother out of state calls and emails several times a week, and gets nervous if I don't get right back to him. My mail carrier stops and checks on me regularly as well.

 

[JustDave]

Yes, I wonder about that. I worry about my dog. If they don't find me in a few days, he could die.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

Yeah, I thought about who would notice I wasn't around. I got this phone app, Snug. I check in with it every day, and if I don't; they start by sending emails, then by phone, and finally notify authorities.
Then it dawned me that I'm dead. I really can't care anymore. It's not that I'm going to come back to life and call 911 to tell them I'm dead. So what will be, will be.

 

[Been There]

My niece calls me everyday at nearly the same time. If she should miss a day, which in the past 10 years I could count the number of times she has missed to probably be about twice, then I call her. If she fails to answer, she knows I will call the police and ask them to do a welfare check. She does the same for me.

So far, neither of us had had to call the police.

 

[jimintoronto]

IN ten years of working for Metro Toronto Ambulance my partner and I were called to dozens, if not hundreds of "found dead in bed " calls. In most cases it was completely obvious that the person was dead, but we were trained to " never assume what happened here ". The Coroner 's office would be called along with the Toronto Police to come to the location.

Our training was "put your hands in your pockets " and just use your eyes, your nose, and your powers of observation. In other words, don't screw up the scene for those who are coming in later. We would ask questions of who ever found the body as to when the deceased person was last seen, their usual habits, and if they were under a Doctor's care at the time of their death. In general in Canada, a death such as this is not usually the subject of an autopsy, unless there are unusual circumstances involved.

The Coroners in Canada are Medical Doctors. The autopsies are done by forensic Pathologists. Coroners in Canada have the legal power to call an inquest, summon witnesses , and empanel a 6 person jury to determine the cause of death, manner of death, and to make reports to help to prevent such deaths in the future. Canadian Coroner's juries cannot attach blame for a death, that is up to the criminal courts to decide. They can find that a death was through "miss-adventure ".

A recent case where a 16 year old girl was on a skateboard, hanging on to the side of a pick up truck, when she fell under the wheels of the truck and was killed , was determined to be a case of "death by miss-adventure ". The driver of the truck was not charged. Other Coroner jury findings can be, suicide, accidental death, or homicide.

As Ambulance employees, Randy and I were called on a regular basis to testify at Coroner's Court. This was in the period from 1977 to 1986, so before Paramedicine came into being. The very first Ontario Paramedics program graduated in 1988 from Humber College with 24 people in the class. JimB.

 

[Devi]

I wonder about this. I'm in my 70's and expect to live a couple more decades. However, at some point, my time will be up.

Since I'm not going to check into a hospital in order to pass away, I wonder how that's dealt with. Presuming my husband is still here ... who should be called, etc. Anyone know? (USA)

 

[MarciKS]

Right now dad and I check on each other twice a day. Til he passes anyway.
I have been setting the alarm on my days off just in case. I figure if I have a neighbor and they hear the alarm too long they may make a phone call. Otherwise nobody will know til I start to smell. Nobody else checks on me. I hope I get extra ripe if I hafta sit there. LOL!

 

[Wren]

My daughter and I email each other every morning and FaceTime every evening, I usually have arrangements to meet various friends during the day so somebody would realise I wasn’t around and raise the alarm

There is also a local ‘Call a buddy’ system, where a neighbours are partnered up to call each other on a daily basis, just in case help is needed

 

[fancicoffee13]

It wouldn't bother me at all, except for the pets and caring for them. But my brother out of state calls and emails several times a week, and gets nervous if I don't get right back to him. My mail carrier stops and checks on me regularly as well.

That's another thing. If I pass unexpectedly, who's going to feed my dog and walk her, etc. imagine all the mess while waiting for someone to finally notice she needs to go out!

 

[fancicoffee13]

I found 2 family members dead. My mother, who I was living with after I returned from living in various big cities. I came home from work and opened the front door, and it hit me right away. I knew she was gone. I found her upstairs in her room on the floor.

The other was my Aunt who was a resident in the nursing home where I work. Finding two members of my family that had passed away, is enough for me. I don't want to go through with that again.

I understand that. My mother passed away, while 2 of the family were calling and getting no answer, they went over there and she had passed.

 

[officerripley]

I understand that. My mother passed away, while 2 of the family were calling and getting no answer, they went over there and she had passed.

Same here. I was in the same room (and the only other person in the house) with my mother when she died; really, really hard.

 

[HoneyNut]

I woke up early this morning wondering that very question. If I didn't wake up this morning, how long would it take for someone to call and see if I am ok. That is a scary thought. ...I have a nurse that calls once a month, that is month to month.

There is a program in my state that I could sign up for that would do a daily phone call check-in. I keep putting off doing it because I worry that I will forget to pay attention to the phone and cause a false concern.

But, what if instead of being dead we had fallen and broken our hip and couldn't reach the phone. I imagine I'd be laying there slowly dying of thirst and cursing myself for having worried more about causing unnecessary concern.

--- okay I've just now gone to their website and signed up. Hope I don't forget to answer and wind up with the police knocking my door down! (tho I noticed in their disclosures that they won't notify nonemergency services until a new enrollee has 'acclimated' to the calls - they didn't specify what that meant but I'm guessing I'll have to show a pattern of responding to the calls).

 

[DebraMae]

I have thought about it. This is one of the reasons I decided not to get another pet. I would hate for the pet to outlive me and all that would ensue in that scenario. Other than that, I haven't thought much about it. If it does happen I will no longer be in a position to care, but hope it would not cause anyone else trauma.

 

[caroln]

My next door neighbor, who lives alone, is starting to forget to turn off the stove and also has an iffy phone and lots of stairs to get out. She has come up with a plan for herself.

She's going to get 4 different color coded squares to choose from to put in her window for me to see when she is #1Home #2NotHome, #3Help, and #4...um, can't remember the 4th.

But I see holes in that plan, especially if she has already died. I think the best thing is a life alert necklace and/or a new phone. But she wont wear the life alert and prefers her cheap phone even though she has plenty of money. My mother had a Life Alert she wore but didn't always work when she had a few falls. She didn't pass alone thankfully.

I don't think posting a sign saying your not home is such a good idea. Invitation to robbers.

As far as pets, they won't die for quite a while. The gruesome fact is...they have a food source. I don't think I have to spell it out.

Edit: Maybe I misunderstood. She will just put out a color coded sign that only you know what it means? It won't literally say "not home"? That sounds safer!