Keep Your Door Unlocked!

Not fun being sick,

living alone. Keep your door

unlocked just in case...

***

I've written this because I am alright now, almost fully recovered. But most of last week I was sick to the extent where I couldn't breathe and thought I would die of dehydration, arrhythmia, nausea and diarrhea hitting me at the same time due to something bad I ate that completely threw off my digestive system. I lost two kilos (4 lbs) of weight in one day and couldn't keep any food or drink down in my stomach.

I live alone now and every time I had a bout of something during the night last week I thought that I should keep my door open just in case I die and someone needs to get into the apartment without breaking the door. Yes, that's where my mind went.

Why, you'd ask? Because about three years ago now, my downstairs neighbor died that way. I live in a small apartment complex with six units in the same entryway: two downstairs, two upstairs, and two in the basement. We all know each other. We also check on each other from time to time.

Mike lived alone too. He was a Vietnam vet with a host of various health conditions, and a heavy smoker. He lived directly below me and I could hear him shuffling around, coughing and grunting as mobility was becoming more of a challenge for him every day. When he died, I was on my summer break and it took our neighbor Pat a couple of days to find him after someone from the basement apartment called the police and reported that Mike's TV worked loudly non-stop. Pat knew Mike always kept his terrace door open just in case someone needed to come in, and that's how they found him, sitting in a living room armchair with the TV working at full blast.

Sorry for the macabre. But it's the Halloween season, right? Also, this is just to explain why I was largely absent on Vocal last week. Need to catch up on a lot of great new stories.