Kerre Woodham: Check on the grouchy elderly
Perhaps, as a random act of kindness, we could check on thos crotchety neighbours or elderly friends. Photo / Thinkstock
Thursday was the first day of spring and also Random Acts of Kindness Day.
It was also the day newsrooms reported that an 88-year-old Wellington man had been found dead in his flat, and had probably been there for a year.
Nobody had noticed and nobody had cared that Michael Clarke was gone.
His fellow tenants and his landlord, the Wellington City Council, said Clarke was a reclusive man - a man with no close family who kept to himself and was extremely private.
Other tenants in the council-owned apartment block said they were put away in the flats and forgotten about, and some journalists seemed to think that was the council's fault - that they should be more proactive in looking after their tenants. That's hardly fair.
The council isn't running an institution or a managed-care facility. Surely if blame belongs anywhere, it's with Clarke's neighbours. I find it incredible that no one thought it strange that there was no noise from his flat, or that letters and junk mail were building up in his letterbox, or that he hadn't been sighted for months.
Some people choose to withdraw from society. There may have been family feuds or disappointments. There are some who don't want the pressures and obligations that come with relationships and would rather be alone. They guard their privacy fiercely and do not take kindly to visitors.
And that's their right. But surely there can be a happy medium?
It seems incredible that a man who spent 88 years walking in this world, who'd lived a life and had stories to tell, could be invisible.
Perhaps, as a random act of kindness, we could check on those crotchety neighbours or elderly friends, risking their wrath at this intrusion.
Choosing to live alone is one thing. Being left to rot without a single solitary soul to note your passing is quite another.
It is sad how this person died without anyone apparently noticing but isn't this just another indication of how our society is being broken down to individuals taking care of themselves. A selfishness is developing and it is difficult to see exactly what is causing it.
It wasn't the Council's fault - unless it's a matter of accommodation resource use. It isn't an aged care agency.
Perhaps the problem is that we don't have an aged care agency, despite this being the growth area in the population. In fact, we have a failing children's agency and WINZ who work hard to not care for their clients.
It is the fault of modern society in which most are trying to find a job, struggling to make ends meet or being pressured to do one or both and doesn't allow the time or space for simply caring about one's neighbours. Those who have plenty, of course, largely wouldn't think about it.
Generally, unless a story hits the news, people are living isolated lives. We come from a NZ tradition where people look after their neighbours or believe the welfare state is doing it.
In truth, we no longer have a meaningful welfare state and many people don't know who their neighbours are let alone care about what is happening to them.
There are those who care but unless we adopt different economic and social strategies, such as those suggested by Gareth Morgan, it's only going to become more and more dehumanised.