Looking out for the Neighbour

Many years ago we had an old lady next door. She lived alone and her son would only come on the day of her pension, take the money and disappear. One morning we could smell smoke in our house, and after looking around (and after my mum finished accusing me, a 7 year old at the time, of smoking cigarettes!) and finding no evidence of a fire I told my mum to call the fire brigade anyway to be safe. They soon arrived and quickly determined the smoke to be coming from next door. They broke her door down and found her slumped in the living room which was on fire. Apparently what happened was she had fallen over and also pulled her old-fashioned freestanding lethal bar heater over onto the carpet, which was burning through the carpet and floorboard while she couldn't get up. We made the front page of the local paper.

Again, about year later we heard a massive bang from next door, and then when we went to check on her later she didn't answer, which was unusual for her. We called the police and they forced entry and found her at the bottom of the stairs. Soon after that she was hospitalised and sold the house and moved down south. Don't know what eventually happened but she would have been well over 100 years old now if still alive.

The mother of one of my mates is in her early 80's, and strangely enough has significantly better health and frame of mind, and can walk quite well, unlike my mate who is over 30 years younger!