My Isolated Neighbour

In my childhood, I had a neighbour who lived right next to me who was always very lonely and isolated. She always seemed very separate from everyone else and rarely went out of their house. A few times I went to go run errands for her and she seemed to not be too sure how to socially interact as if people didn't come by too often. She also would always feed the cats that we had around the neighbourhood and seemed to become their caretaker.

Recently, my family and I had received news that after a while of being in the hospital she had died, and with this came many other pieces of information. For one, she had apparently had several illnesses for a very long time but denied treatment for reasons that no one seemed to know. For two, she hadn't had anyone to talk to or interact with at all during her time living in this house.

This isolation could actually have been what caused several of these health issues, and the fact that she denied treatment didn't help. She could have not gone for a variety of reasons but the most likely of them is she might have not thought it was worth it and as sad as that may seem, isolation can play a big role in how individuals view themselves.

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