Posted on 07/04/2009 10:42:12 AM PDT by marthemaria
Jul 4 2009 Lynn Davidson
A LONELY old lady lay dead in her flat for five years because no one bothered to check on her.
Isabella Purves, who would have been 90 this year, was last seen in 2004.
But local residents who used to see her every day assumed she had simply moved away or gone into a home.
Isabella was only found after people living below her top-floor flat complained to the council that water was dripping through their ceiling.
Police were sent to investigate the leak. They discovered Isabella's remains after wading through a three-foot high pile of unopened mail at her front door.
The kitchen sink in the flat was full of water. Locals in Edinburgh's Canonmills were horrified when they learned of the tragedy.
Dorothy Crystal, who runs an optometrist's shop where Isabella used to be a customer, said: "It's an indictment of society. Nobody cares any more and that's pretty sad.
"It's down to basic neighbourly behaviour. I would hope people would be looking out for others.
"I am absolutely shocked. It's a close-knit community here. I find it incredible that nobody knew she had died for all this time."
Isabella used to be a well known figure in Canonmills.
She was often spotted in the streets with her wheeled shopping basket and also enjoyed long walks. She would be seen out in hiking boots with a rucksack on her back.
Residents also sometimes saw Isabella weeding the shared garden at the front of her tenement block in Rodney Street.
She would stop occasionally to chat but no one really got to know her.
Florist Sandra Brownlee described the pensioner as "pleasant and independent" and said she saw her pulling her shopping basket every day until 2004.
Sandra added:"We noticed she had stopped coming by the shop and wondered why. We thought she must have gone to live with relatives or gone into a home.
"I was worried for a while and wondered if I should go and check on her. I wish I had now.
"It is shocking and very, very sad. Surely there should be checks in place to make sure elderly people are OK?" None of Isabella's neighbours in the close had ever set eyes on her.
The man next door, who only moved in this year and asked not to be named, said: "I knew an old woman lived there but I never saw her. I thought the flat was up for rent.
"When the police opened the door there was a smell and it hung around all day. Before then I didn't smell anything."
Another resident in the block, Lucy Balloch, 28, said: "People always change flats here. There are a lot of students and very few long-term residents - nobody knows their neighbours."
Neil Gammack, 57, whose sister called the council about the leak, said: "I never saw Ms Purves in all the years I've been living here."
The postman who works in the close said: "I only met the lady once in the 10 years I have been delivering her mail.
"She never got much mail, it was only occasional. That's why I didn't suspect anything."
Cleo Gifford, whose family used to live opposite Isabella, said she never had a single visitor in the 18 years they were neighbours.
"It was a wee shame," Cleo, 34, added.
"Ms Purves was an old-fashioned lady, quite a Miss Marple, Morningside type. She would wear thick tights and long skirts and was always well turned out.
"She was always cleaning her brasses and keeping the stair clean and would go out hiking. She was very fit and only became frail in later years."
There were no clues about Isabella's fate in her financial affairs. Sources said all her bills were paid by direct debit and her pension went straight into her bank account.
The charity Age Concern and Help the Aged in Scotland said they had never heard of an old person's body lying undiscovered for so long.
But spokesman Douglas McLellan said it was getting more and more easy in modern society for pensioners to simply disappear.
Fractured
He added: "If this lady was not receiving care treatment or social care, the likelihood of being found quickly is minimal.
"It's not just about public services finding people and neighbours checking up.
"It's about how elderly people themselves are living their lives. If they're leading private lives, then how are people going to find them?
"Society has fractured.We're not in the same units as we used to be. People might not phone their own gran more than once a month."
Douglas called on the authorities to bring in a system of automatic checks on old people who were "non-responsive".
The MP for Canonmills, Labour's Malcolm Chisholm, said it was "deeply disturbing" that Isabella had lain for so long.
He added: "There is a great sense of community in Edinburgh. But with such a bustling, sometimes transient population, it is really important that young and old reach out and build those bridges."
Police appealed for any relatives of Isabella to come forward. They said there were no suspicious circumstances in the case.
Welcome to OBAMAWORLD where the goverment provides everything but LOVE!
And as a result, the government will become yet more intrusive into every aspect of british life to prevent such tragedies. The “loo camera” tied into a central database will be discussed.
Always wonder about those freaks ya hear about doing a “loo camera”.
There are some folks I just do not care to share my little world with.
The community has failed so the government should do something. Is there anything wrong with this picture, like the neighbors, for instance??? This woman does not seem to have been hostile to contact with others, they just didn't really care. Very sad.
Hmmm.
Welcome to the human race !
Easy enough to understand;no relatives who cared ,plus automatic deposits of income and automatic payment of bills. Who expects the cashier at the meg-mart to remember or care if a particular customer no longer comes shopping.
This lady created for herself a life in which she had no friends or close acquanitances. Now we are supposed to feel sad because nobody missed her? She got just what she bargained for; she was left alone. This instance is an excellent example of how things SHOULD be.
I tend to agree.
Sad from our perspective, but she probably lived as she chose, and died similarly. RIP
You said — This lady created for herself a life in which she had no friends or close acquanitances. Now we are supposed to feel sad because nobody missed her? She got just what she bargained for; she was left alone.
—
Well, at 85 years old (approximately when she died), she would have outlived a lot of her friends. And she was apparently living in a place (i.e., neighborhood) where people moved in and moved out frequently and didn’t get a chance to know each other.
Then I see that the mail was put in through a slot and went inside the house, so no one would notice the mail piling up. And if any neighbors did knock on the door, they wouldn’t get an answer, and so what would they do after that?
But, I am wondering about how the rent was paid. Perhaps it was set up on an automatic payment system. I don’t know though. And I wonder if there were utilities to pay, but perhaps they were included in the rent.
This is a basic problem for older people and I don’t always think it’s because they necessarily want to be isolated, but rather that it turns out that way.
I’m happy to say that in the small NYC apartment building where I maintain a part-time residence, the super takes it upon himself to watch out for the elderly or infirm residents of the building. He checked on a woman with brain cancer every day, and when she finally started hallucinating and clearly couldn’t live on her own any more, he was on the phone to her son immediately. When a very elderly woman fell and broke her back, he heard her faint calls for help very quickly, and not only summoned help, but did a huge amount of work to help her family organize and remove her belongings. He also showed up at my door with her 2 pet birds and asked if I could take them in (at the time, I was the only bird-owner in the building, so I was the logical choice) — the ancient canary is still with me almost 7 years later.
There are still pockets of civilization, even in NYC.
Luckily in America we have property taxes...no way is the government going to allow five years of unpaid taxes to go unanswered. lol. Blaming the neighbors is unfair. Nobody is obligated to check on their neighbors. Where in the constitution does it say that you have the right to have neighbors check on you?????
Good point, but there are no property taxes on an apartment. At least, not the few I rented back when I was younger.
If nobody reported her dead, there should be five years of pensioner’s checks just inside the front door. Had nobody noticed she’d stopped cashing her checks?
**”It’s an indictment of society. Nobody cares any more and that’s pretty sad.**
Visit the sick, bury the dead. Corporal Acts of Mercy.
Yes, but there was a story about a man who died in his house during Hurricane Rita and wasn't found until the next year when his property taxes were due and the government went out to collect. That's rather pathetic.
**”Society has fractured.We’re not in the same units as we used to be. People might not phone their own gran more than once a month.” **
So sad.
......It’s a close-knit community here.......
Apparently a few stitches were dropped.
Her bank account is great however. The direct deposits continued on auto pilot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.