Our neighbor across the street, Elizabeth, passed away this week. When, exactly, we aren't sure. She lived alone and didn't have any relatives to speak of and she died sometime between Monday when Mark saw her and yesterday. The paramedics estimated that she had been gone probably since Monday night or Tuesday morning.
Our mailman came over yesterday and asked me if I had seen her because she hadn't been getting her mail or her paper...this is the same mailman that she shared her newspaper with every day for him to read at lunch time...so that set in motion various neighbors trying to figure out if she was in her house...she called me last week to tell me that she wouldn't be able to walk Zoe for a couple of weeks - oh, did I mention that she walked our dog..and our dog before this dog...everyday, just because she loves dogs - because she had a masectomy the week before. When she called, I asked her if she needed anything - if there was any way that we could help her - she, of course, said no and I didn't push myself on her too much...partly because I knew she meant it, partly because I was busy with my own family. I left for Oklahoma and Mark was busy with the kids so that, coupled with the fact that we knew she had had surgery, made us not notice that we hadn't seen her for a few days.
Its sad to me that she died alone in her home from a heart attack, or some results of her surgery and that she laid in her house, unnoticed for probably three days....its sad to me that even though she did this nice, wonderful thing for me by walking my dog - that sometimes I looked at her as an annoyance because she would come to get Zoe at times that weren't completely convenient for me...its sad to me that we lived across the street from her for over 5 years and we had to look at some of her mail in order to find out her last name so we could call the Bishop from her Ward and let him know what had happened...Its sad to me that she requested that she not have any type of service to remember her life - which brings all kinds of implications with it about how she saw herself in this life, etc....
If you met Elizabeth, she might have been a little gruff with you, she wasn't a naturally smiley, friendly person...I think she lived a hard life - she was married to a man who I don't think was very nice to her...But she was a good neighbor and we will miss her...As Lora said today, "I wish Elizabeth didn't have to go and live with God, I think she should come back..."
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