The lady next door.

I shall call her Grace.

Why, I don't know. It's just the name that popped in to my head and I don't know her name. So, Grace it is. Luckily, it's a pretty name because this is a pretty damn sad story.

So, May 18, 2011. What a weird night. I haven't mentioned it because, well, it just seemed weird until now. It still is weird. (lots of "weirds" in this sentence).

Justin and I had gotten home from work and as far as I could tell it was a typical night. We made dinner, were sipping on wine, sitting down to eat and got a knock at the door. Justin says, "oh, it's probably someone selling something, I'm on it." And I'm all, "Do we really even have to bother?" He walks to the door and it's our HOA president. I hear him asking questions that Justin doesn't know so I'm summoned. We are asked things about our neighbor next door (aka: Grace)... Have we seen her? No. Do we know what she looks like? No. She was having her water turned off since she hadn't paid her water bills in 3 months, nor her HOA dues. Weird. Again.

In the two years I've lived in our quiet little neighborhood, she is the ONE neighbor I've never seen or met or heard. I've heard from the other neighbors that she's just reclusive, and never comes outside. She's always been like that but she's quiet and pays her bills and doesn't bother anyone. One of my neighbor friends said that in the 15 years she's lived in the neighborhood, she'd only seen Grace twice!

The HOA president tells us that he'll probably call the cops for a welfare inspection since no one is answering the door and no one seems to know anything about her and her bills are so late (and stuff is piling up on her porch), which had just started this week. We noticed papers piling up a week or two ago but then they were gone so we thought nothing of it.

A while later, the doorbell rings again. A cop. Same questions. Same answers.

Justin and I give each other a look, like WHOA. WHAT IN THE HELL??? Again, weird....

About a half an hour later, the doorbell rings again. The cop. Looking like he's about to yak or cry all over the place. UH OH. He says, "Um, ma'am, we're going to need to get your information, your neighbor has passed away."

Justin and I look at each other confirming a thought that had crossed our minds but just didn't seem fair or plausible to actually be REAL. I mean REALLY?

So we give him our information and I ask, "she was in there dead?" And the cop looking like he's still going to gag, "Um, yeah."

HOLY SHIT.

He asked us to come identify the body but since we'd never even seen her alive, that wouldn't have done him much good, other than he would have shared what he must have been feeling with someone else.

Justin and I both felt part guilty and, well, really, mostly sad for our next door neighbor Grace for the rest of the night. Not only did she die all alone but no one even knew for god knows how long. Probably at least 2 months, if not 3 (she hadn't paid anything since February). It seems so unfair and though it probably was the life (not the death) she wanted for herself, you'd think that at least SOMEONE should have noticed. Needless to say, we did not sleep well. It was so very sad. You think you know your neighbors and, generally, we do... we know them all, we play with our neighbors kids, we talk to our neighbors, we live in a safe neighborhood in the Kirkland suburbia...we thought we KNEW that our neighbor was just always quiet, reclusive. And we accepted it. Little did we know that she was actually dead for a long while and we didn't even think anything of it. Oh, and she apparently has 9 (yes NINE) brothers and sisters back in the midwest. Who had no idea she had passed. We still have never heard of why she died (she was only 50) and no one is still living in her house. In fact, they've done nothing to clean it out or anything (weird...again).

I'm not really sure what the lesson is in this other than that age old lesson that life is short, don't take anything for granted, most things that are seemingly "problems" really ARE trivial, and make sure to tell the people you love that you love them. Oh, and make sure you actually KNOW your neighbors. It certainly brought us back to ground zero and put everything into perspective since it was so (literally) close to home. We fell asleep wrapped up in each other that night. Sad lesson to learn but I guess that is the definition of what life is at times.