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Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
Wed Oct 21, 2015, 12:45 AM Oct 2015

The Lonely Death of George Bell

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.

Investigators stitched together Mr. Bell's life by gathering documents, photographs, letters and receipts found in his Queens home. Neighbors had last seen him six days earlier, a Sunday. 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.

Each year around 50,000 people die in New York, and each year the mortality rate seems to graze a new low, with people living healthier and longer. A great majority of the deceased have relatives and friends who soon learn of their passing and tearfully assemble at their funeral. A reverent death notice appears. Sympathy cards accumulate. When the celebrated die or there is some heart-rending killing of the innocent, the entire city might weep.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/nyregion/dying-alone-in-new-york-city.html?action=click&contentCollection=Travel&module=MostPopularFB&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article

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The Lonely Death of George Bell (Original Post) Blue_Tires Oct 2015 OP
What a sad story. Suich Oct 2015 #1
Powerful, deeply researched story. Nitram Oct 2015 #2
Rec progressoid Oct 2015 #3
K & R. Life. appalachiablue Oct 2015 #4
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