Dead And No One Knows It
Why it didn't surprise me at all.
Welcome to Cheaper Than Therapy, a healing newsletter for 80s babies by Shani Silver. This newsletter does not publish free content, but if you’d like to read it you can subscribe here. Thank you for enjoying the work of independent writers.
By now I assume you’ve heard the story of the Arizona woman who died in her cubicle at work and wasn’t found until four days later. If you’re unaware that this happened, here is the story. If you’re surprised that this happened, keep reading what I’m about to say. Because of all those who were horrified by this incredibly sad situation, I was one person who wasn’t shocked at all.
Somewhere around the ten-year mark of my singlehood, I stopped fearing “dying alone,” and understood that it’s just what happens sometimes. Not one of us is guaranteed to have a partner at the end of our lives, not even those who are partnered now. Dying alone is not a sentence worse than death (it’s just death), and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with talking about it in a logical way so that we can stop making a myth and a monster out of it. Single people’s routines are solitary, there’s no built-in, regular communication with other human beings, and it is easier than anyone wants to think about for someone who is alone to die unnoticed. Especially if you work at home or in a space that’s isolated from regular contact with other people. Y’all I don’t know any other way to say this…she could have been me.