In the last 7 years 3 neighbors have died. All were not expected.
When I lived in Winnipeg our neighbor died. He was healthy one day and gone the next. It was a real shock to his wife.
Then when I first moved to Ottawa I was living at the Y waiting for accessible housing. A paraplegic moved intot he rook next to mine. Our bathrooms were next to each other. They were not accessible to one day he showed me how he would hurl himself out of his wheelchair and grab the sink to hold himself up. One day I heard this aweful bang and it sounded like he missed the sink and crashed intot he tub. I knocked on the door but there was no response so I got a staff member to open the door. He was dead on the floor.
Yesterday the police knocked at my door and asked if I knew the woman next door. Well I knew her. We were friendly enough in the halls but we weren't friends. Seems she died at least a few days ago and no one found her until her personal care worker knocked today and didn't get an answer. She called the police and they found her on the floor.
I gotta wonder who's next.
In the last case it was hard tracking down her daughter. No one knew her name or how to reach her. Finally they contacted someone who knew where she worked and they were able to contact her
LESSON:
Let people around you know how to contact family. Failing that put a sign on the wall near the door so emergency services can contact family if needed. If you haven't put emergency contact info in your wallet then do it. NOW! This is especially important if you don't have a driver's licence or other identifying info that would have next of kin on it.