The Lonely Death of George Bell

[LiberalArkie]

They found him in the living room, crumpled up on the mottled carpet. The police did. Sniffing a fetid odor, a neighbor had called 911. The apartment was in north-central Queens, in an unassertive building on 79th Street in Jackson Heights.

The apartment belonged to a George Bell. He lived alone. Thus the presumption was that the corpse also belonged to George Bell. It was a plausible supposition, but it remained just that, for the puffy body on the floor was decomposed and unrecognizable. Clearly the man had not died on July 12, the Saturday last year when he was discovered, nor the day before nor the day before that. He had lain there for a while, nothing to announce his departure to the world, while the hyperkinetic city around him hurried on with its business.

Neighbors had last seen him six days earlier, a Sunday. On Thursday, there was a break in his routine. The car he always kept out front and moved from one side of the street to the other to obey parking rules sat on the wrong side. A ticket was wedged beneath the wiper. The woman next door called Mr. Bell. His phone rang and rang.

Then the smell of death and the police and the sobering reason that George Bell did not move his car.

Snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/nyregion/dying-alone-in-new-york-city.html?_r=1

[66 dmhlt]

1. Very interesting - thanks

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. What a fascinating and sad story. Even in NYC, people can fall through the cracks and vanish. n/t

[stevenleser]

14. Even more so. The giants on alienation like Durkheim noted there is no alienation like being

alienated in the midst of tons of people.

It's very easy to disappear here in NYC.

[cwydro]

3. I read this in the Times this morning.

Sad, but fascinating.

[KatyMan]

4. What a story, thank you. n/t

n/t

[LiberalArkie]

5. I will probably go like that, not a hoarder though, too much of a minimalist.

But my ideal is to die in a recliner and have someone break into my little house and find my skeleton in a recliner. No family and most of my friends have moved in different directions. But I wish I could see the face of someone once they got the doors or window open. Since the lights would have been turned off for awhile and the generator would have run out of propane, it would be dark. So they would be flashing a flashlight around and then it lands on a skeleton.

Nope, don't need a funeral, just need to keep the picture in my head.

[Warpy]

7. Yeah, me too. No family left

and friends moved away. I'm retired, so there are no work colleagues. My health is not the best so I spend most of my time at home.

It just gets that way for some of us.

[LiberalArkie]

8. Yep, retired and 67. Reasonably good health. A good massive stroke or heart attack

would be nice. The though of drooling turns me off though. I have had so many near misses in dieing that some of my old friends tell me that God doesn't want me in heaven and Satan doesn't want me in hell, so they figure I am doomed to walk the earth..

[rug]

6. K & R. This article i not to be missed.

[jwirr]

9. For those who live alone in our community the mail man is

often the link to an emergency. If you do not get the mail out of your box for a couple of days you get a knock on the door just to say a friendly hello or to call for help. They should get extra pay for that service.

[Brickbat]

10. The world is full of such people. We are a very lonely planet.

[Marty McGraw]

11. with my dying gasp...

... I will make sure to crack open my bird cages and tip over the bucket of seed!

Don't want to leave the door open to the outside world. Figure it gives the kids a good while before (hopefully) somebody notices my departure.

Opening the door outside would be unfair, since they are not native and haven't the slightest about gettin' along with the local group.

I used to read articles like this all the time on the back pages (newspaper) when I worked graveyd shift in the 90's. Even remembered one, they figured, had gone unnoticed for a couple of yrs. Pretty much papery and dust when they found him.

[spanone]

12. interesting read.....

thanks...

[Skittles]

13. not everyone who is alone is lonely

many people want to be alone, and if they have the kind of relatives that only say GIMME GIMME, they were probably right not to want to know them