Noisy Neighbors and Ghosts

 

Oh boy this is a loaded subject. I have lived in this old building for 25 years. This building was built in 1933 and there has not been much upgrade especially in the insulation area.  

Over the years many neighbors have come and gone or died. The walls here are extremely thin. Some neighbors play loud music, some are intimately active frequently, some speak loudly, and some have barking dogs, but the most recent one is truly sad. 

My downstairs 70-year-old neighbor had his stepmother move in with him after his father died. She has been in this building for at least 10 years at this point. This lady was always strange and aggressive. She is about five feet two inches tall with piercing blue eyes and a nasty mouth.  

It did not take long before she showed signs of dementia. Little by little as her brain kept shrinking in her head and her behavior became more bizarre and unpredictable. She would sneak out of the house and walk the streets and get lost. She would knock on everyone’s door in the middle of the night. My 70-year-old neighbor has had his hands full. 

Over the past three years this poor woman became so incapacitated that she screams constantly all day and all night. She can’t walk or talk or get dressed.  She lost weight and has no control of her bowels; she physically attacks the caretakers and does not know where she is.  

Thankfully I can’t hear her too much because I live on the floor above them. If I leave my door open to get some cross ventilation, I can hear her clearly. The sound of her screaming is truly gruesome and reminiscent of being tortured.  

I don’t agree with the step son’s decision to keep this lady in his apartment. She is clearly suffering. She does have aides that come to take care of her for a few hours every day and Social Services knows of her condition yet don’t put her in a nursing home. 

I am reminded that we really don’t know what is going on behind closed doors. Hearing suffering and conversations and violence and laughing and whispers are haunting the hallways. Not only with the current humans, also with those who are ghosts from the past.  

I can remember when I first moved into this building I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would hear Ms. Grant who died in my apartment walking up and down the stairs.  

I am pretty sure this poor lady with dementia will be the next soul who walks the hallway, still screaming and flailing and lost in limbo. Perhaps looking for her husband or step son.

Georgia