Posted on 10/18/2015 2:28:19 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Each year around 50,000 people die in New York, some alone and unseen. Yet death even in such forlorn form can cause a surprising amount of activity. Sometimes, along the way, a life’s secrets are revealed.
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 Su house was broken into by meth addicts. nday. 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This fascinating report details the extent the City authorities will go to piece together a man's life who appeared to die friendless with no relatives and who should inherit his rather sizeable estate. It turns out that he had both friends and relatives but ended up withdrawing into his apartment, rebuffing all contact with lifelong friends, while he hoarded everything that came into his life. Why he changed from once being a prankster and the life of the party into a recluse, trapped by his belongings, is what the authorities attempted to discover. This is an interesting read; One that I normally would waste time on, except that I watched my mother headed this direction. Not quite so bad -- she still had friends at the end -- but hearing loss and a snapped leg severely limited her world at the end. We moved her to a lovely Assisted Living place, with a wonderful, caring staff where she was treated like a queen, but she hated it and she resisted all attempts to get her to come live with me, which would have necessitated a move to a different state, 2000 miles from where the remainder of her life was located. She lived to 101, but the last few years were just a shadow of her previous life and career. We locked up her house which needed a great deal of repair, and just cleaning, and left it with someone in the neighborhood designated to water the grass.
After that gentleman died (and we weren't notified) the grass died and the house was broken into by meth addicts and robbed. The police called us in the middle of the night. Thank God the broken leg and old age had already forced her to move to Assisted Living at age 98, or she might have been murdered.
We never told her about the burglary, even though she lost some very nice things. She didn't really need them any more, and neither did her grandchildren, so what was the point of making her fret?
But, although she was active in the Community, she wouldn't allow anybody in her house for the last 25 years of her life. Once she couldn't drive any more, she was trapped. Sometimes friends would pick her up on her front porch, but they sort of stopped when her neighborhood declined. (She was still driving at 97 -- the "designated driver" for her circle of friends!) In it's infinite wisdom, the State of California renewed her driver's license for another 10 years at age 96! Sigh!
Take away: Keep your friends close and stay in touch often. After they all die, make new friends.
Many cities now have programs where the police, or social workers, will make “well check phone calls” on the elderly. Many churches do this too. Sometimes the oldsters just need someone to talk to once a day. Volunteer to do this for someone else, if you don’t have anything to do in your life.
Talking about drivers licenses:
I had a 99-year-old neighbor. I asked him how it felt to be about to turn 100.
He said, “It’s not 100 I’m worried about.
“It’s 101. That’s when my license is up.”
Get cats. If you die alone they’ll dispose of the body.
It is sad that so many people die all alone.
It was interesting to see how the investigators were able to, bit by bit, piece together some semblance of how his life was.
Poor guy, if he had had children, he probably wouldn't have died so lonely.
*I have two attorneys who will take care of me when needed. They have promised to do so and check up on me every once in a while.
**I have friends I keep in touch with.
***I HAD seven first cousins but the only two left I don't like. :o) One is now wheelchair bound and the other, a woman, NO ONE likes. She had four children and three of them won't have anything to do with her. Her husband is senile now and she has heart problems. I guess the youngest daughter will end up taking care of them both. And who will take care of her? Who knows.
It really DOESN'T matter as THIS life is a blink of the eye. How we prepare NOW for eternity is what is REALLY important, doncha think?
Little sh#t would just love to eat me.
Children come with NO guarantees. You know that.
If this man had belonged to a church, maybe the minister would have visited them. They usually do.
George Bell is with his Maker now. Our good Lord will see to him now as we are ALL His beloved children.
For whom the Bell tolls; in heaven, I hope.
NYC has eccentrics. It always has had - I read this, sort of like the Collier Brothers. He probably died the way he wished. Hoarders are strange people.
It was interesting that he called off his marriage because his fiance’s family wanted him to sign a prenup. Who ever heard of a prenup in those days? Especially for ordinary folks. Also interesting that he and his former fiance kept in touch for the rest of their lives, even though she married someone else. If you didn’t get through the whole thing, he left part of his estate to her, except that she died before she could collect and her share went to some nieces. And she died alone, a recluse, and overweight too. They never saw each other again. Sad.
Interesting how the estate diminished under the hands of the government.
Not by much. I think that they kept it remarkably intact. They just paid expenses, as any executor would have. I was impressed about how little they took, compared with what they could have taken had they just turned a blind eyee to the whole thing.
The fees are comparable to what private estate attorneys charge. Searching for those next of kin, and contacting all those people and talking to them, necessarily uses up a lot of billable hours.
Overall, about 6% of the estate went to administrative and legal fees, and about 2% for expenses. This would be typical of estates this size.
save for later
I have a Brother whom I am concerned about.
He was always a bit of a loner tho he taught school for many years. He is now 71 and seems to have cut himself off from his family and I don’t know why.
One of my Sisters was able to keep in touch off and on but now he will not even reply to her. A few weeks ago we inherited just a few hundred dollars from an old Co-op account. Actually around $1300.00
I emailed him and told him that I would send him his share but he never replied. My Sister gave me his last known address so I mailed the check to him. I noticed he cashed it so he can probably still get around tho I know he is in bad health.
I just don’t know what to do and neither do my Sisters.
I am amazed that a NYC agency works this well and is pretty caring.
George Bell chose his life and died his life. I would have taken different choices but respect his choices.
Aside from the unpleasant clean up after his death, I have no criticism of George Bell. George Bell lived and died a free man!
I have an aunt and uncle and they are reclusive and I tell them I expect to read an article about their cats eating them after they pass away. They have lived in the same apartment for 39 years and don’t any of their neighbors by name.
Fascinating article and thought provoking.
Thank you for posting and telling about your mother.
I’ve known a couple of people who died somewhat like George. It’s the unoticed part, isnt it? That days pass by and no one seems to think, where is he, or she...
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