Editor:
Re: Island Hotel owners cleaning up after death of a resident
What’s particularly horrific about the Chronicle article in the Aug. 28 issue is surely not that, despite the urgency of attending to these matters, the “first and foremost concern” was “health issues” with “cleaning up” needed after a resident was found long dead in the Island Hotel.
Instead, especially during the intense July heat, isn’t the key issue that apparently no one checked on the elderly man who was living alone?
Didn’t anyone, such as one of his 12 close-by neighbours, the property owners’ agent or someone in a local business or store, have some concern when there was no sign of him for some time? Did no one knock repeatedly on his door and, with no answer, become worried?
It doesn’t help at all to learn that the representative of the B.C. Coroners Service says that deaths in similar circumstances are “more often than you think.”
No one, of course, would be expected to check on this man or anyone else out of a sense of duty or obligation, but what happened to neighbourly caring about the well-being of others?
I hope that those, including me, who have learned of this man’s heart-rending death will at least pay him some respect and dignity, albeit sadly too late, by becoming more aware and watchful about the needs of others.
J. J. Sheridan
Ladysmith