The strange tale of Henry Summers

[Gob]

When I heard the story of an elderly man who had lain undiscovered in his flat for three years I wanted to know more about who he was.



It began with an urban horror story.

In June 2015 police in Edinburgh were called by a GP because an elderly patient named Henry Summers had not been seen for several years.

The police went to Henry's address in Leith, one of the most densely populated areas in Scotland.

They went to the door of his top-floor flat on Easter Road and knocked but got no answer.

The police called a locksmith but he couldn't open the door because the hinges had fused as it hadn't been opened for years.

When the police knocked the door down they found a mountain of mail in the hall and Henry Summers was inside, dead.

He had been dead for three years, undiscovered, because all of his bills were paid by direct debit.


Continues here...

[dales]

A few years before that a woman had been found dead in Edinburgh, undiscovered for five years.

Must be a Scottish thing?

[BoSoxGal]

. . . a stone, a leaf, an unfound door; of a stone, a leaf, a door.
And of all the forgotten faces.

Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not
know our mother's face; from the prison of her flesh have we come
into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth.

Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his
father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent?
Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?

~ Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel

[Lord Jim]

Ol' Tom would never have made it writing for Hallmark...

[BoSoxGal]