Just finished reading
this article.
Long ass article, so summarizing:
It's an article about an old man dying of old age and medical complications in a filthy and unkempt New York apartment. He was found by a neighbor noticing a horrible smell a week after he died.
The police department is required to alert the next of kin, but the neighbors didn't know any. They found phone numbers and contact info strewn about the apartment that didn't lead anywhere. No relatives came forward to identify him. Medical examiners at the morgue cold-called nearby hospitals to try and find out more about the guy. Nothing turned up. His remains remained in limbo for months while trying to verify his identity. In the end, no one attended his funeral service.
Eventually old tax return documents, and a will from 1982, were found. His will split his estate / assets evenly among 4 different people, two of which were already dead. His bank account listed two beneficiaries, one already dead. The living were surprised to find they had been included in a will, as most had no contact with him for years.
Of the people that knew the deceased (one, really) they claimed that despite spending parts of the last 15 years of him, he "didn't really know him." He mostly stayed home, secluded in his apartment. And he never got too personal. Did not really live life.
I'm just sad this sort of thing happens; it kind of hits close to home. It's where I used to be headed. I don't think I'll end up there, now, but I'm only a stone's throw away from it. I'd like to keep moving away...
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