Mystery

It’s Thursday, which is normally the day when I grocery shop for my crazy old lady. I’ve been doing her shopping for five years now, almost always on Thursday nights. I call her on Wednesday night, I get her list, and then I shop on Thursday after work. But not this week, and not for the last few weeks. 

About a month ago, when I couldn’t reach her on the phone, I walked to her house and banged on the door. I knew she wouldn’t come to the door (I have never actually seen her) - I wanted to just hear her yell back that she was OK. But she didn’t. I called her again, and she didn’t answer and so I called the police to do a wellness check. A short time later, my phone rang. A young police officer told me that the lady had been taken to the hospital a few days earlier following a 911 call from another neighbor. My mom was with me that week, so I didn’t go to visit her right away but when my mom left, I called the hospital to ask about her. She wasn’t there, and they - of course - would not give me any information about whether she’d been there at all, if she’d been discharged, sent to rehab, died, whatever. 

So I called her again, and I stopped at her house and banged on the door and yelled again. Nothing. I’ve continued to call and stop by, at least once a week; and yesterday, I noticed that the grass had been cut. Her house is falling apart, but one thing she always did was to have someone cut the grass once or twice a month, and they’re obviously still doing it. And I am pretty sure she’s not dead because I have checked the obituaries many times. My guess is that she is in a rehab or assisted living facility somewhere - this is what I hope, anyway. We have called a few local places but we haven’t found her. 

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The thing is that if she was in a rehab or assisted living place, she would probably call me - I would hope she would, anyway. She has my number, and she probably has it memorized because she uses an old-fashioned landline, so she probably doesn’t have speed dial (a great convenience, but I do miss having tons of phone numbers just memorized). Knowing with some degree of certainty that she’s still alive, and that as recently as six weeks ago she was reasonably lucid (crazy, but lucid), I am thinking about two possibilities. One, she’s injured or sick enough that she doesn’t feel well enough to call me, or she just simply can’t. Another is that she’s mad at me, and doesn’t want to speak to me. 

It sounds ridiculous (and it would be ridiculous) that this lady would be mad at the person who literally kept her alive for the last five years, but she’s a bit of a character, as I have previously established. Last year, when she started to experience health issues, she called me complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. I told her that I was going to hang up and call 911, and that I could ride with her to the hospital if she wanted a companion. She was furious at the very suggestion. I should have known, apparently, that someone with her (imaginary) condition and sensitivities would be unable to endure even five minutes in a hospital surrounded by machines and radioactive isotopes and Purell. The Purell was a bigger concern than the radioactive isotopes. She was outraged at my ignorance. 

Fear of hospitals is not uncommon among older people and I definitely understand not wanting to get in an ambulance, but I didn’t really see an alternative. I have no medical training whatsoever, and so the emergency room is my only suggestion when someone complains of classic heart attack symptoms. At this point, I was a little upset too, because she all but accused me of trying to kill her. 

She called me again the next day and asked me if I knew of a neighbor who is a nurse. She was thinking about a specific person, and the description did not ring a bell, so I couldn’t supply the name. She asked me to look in the neighborhood directory, which no longer exists, although I do have an old copy. I told her that I’d look when I got home, and that I’d call her back. I didn’t tell her that if we did find a nurse in the neighborhood who was willing to visit, that she would immediately call 911 if she suspected a heart attack. 

It was the day after that when I called and visited and then called the police. Piecing together what I know, I guess that she did finally find the nurse’s name and number, and that she (the nurse) was the neighbor who called the ambulance. Maybe she blames me for that - maybe she thinks that this nursing neighbor and I were plotting to Shanghai her to the hospital. Maybe the nurse denied having made the call. Or maybe my old lady is really sick or otherwise debilitated and not able to call. Or maybe she’s in good hands and doesn’t need to call me because she doesn’t need me anymore. Whatever it is, it would be nice to know what happened. It would be nice to know if she’s OK.