10 Practical Tips on How to Prepare If Anything, Tragic Happen to You When You Live Alone
In this article, you will discover who can help you if anything, tragic happen to you when you live alone.
Those of you that live alone, especially those that are older and retired, what do you do for safety to ensure nothing happens to you, and if something, were to happen, someone, will check up on you?
Right now, if something were to happen to me, my children that live with me will help. Without them, I think my boss and coworkers would be the first to know since they see me every day.
But I wonder once I reach retirement and love alone if there’s someone who could check in on me. I hate the thought of lying here with a broken leg for example and no one calling to see if I’m ok.
If Anything, Tragic Happen to Me When I Live Alone What can I do?
Here are the ideas for a safety net to consider when something tragic happens to you.
1. USE FALL DETECTION WITH APPLE WATCH
Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 4 and later have a feature that if you fall and don’t acknowledge the watch telling you that you fell, it will call 911.
If you trigger the emergency alert, 911 calls you, and your emergency contacts get called immediately as well and you always have your watch on you.
Watch advertisements for Apple Watch with examples of 911 calls from different situations where the callers need help.
2. SIGN-UP FOR THE SNUG SAFETY APP
The FREE Snug Safety app is great for seniors and anybody living alone. If you fail to do the daily “check-In” app will call your named contact person(s) to check on you.
If tragic happen the Snug Safety app will:
- Send you a reminder to check in
- Will make several attempts to contact you
- You can set check in time
- You can enter three closest contacts for emergency
3. PERSONAL SAFETY WITH AMAZON ECHO ALEXA TOGETHER PLAN
Amazon Echo device has a new feature called Alexa Together for the elderly. According to Amazon, it’s a free way to feel closer to your elderly parents or grandparents.
You and your trusted contact must have this Amazon Echo and connect through the Care Hub feature. It’s a subscription-based service and will cost you $19.99 (US) per month.
If tragic happen and no activity is perceived by Echo (Alexa) for a given period of time, it will alert selected relative to check on you and make sure you are OK. You and your contact can talk through Amazon Echo (like an intercom).
For more information on Amazon Care Hub and how to set up read an article here.
4. CALL MY BUDDY PROGRAM
Also, you can register for the “Call My Buddy” FREE program through the website askmybuddy.net. If you fall and need help, you can say “Call My Buddy” to your Echo device, and the five people you have delegated as your “buddies” will be notified via text, phone call, and email.
The service is free if you have fewer than 5 contacts and use 10 or fewer notifications in a 30-day period. For $3.66 a month you can use 120 notifications per month, and for $5 per month you can get 400 notifications per month, have 10 contacts, and use numerous languages other than English.
“I am currently paying $32 per month for a medical alert system for my wife, but she fell this morning and wasn’t wearing the necklace, so it was of no help. However, she has and Echo Dot on her bedside table, and if I had signed up for Ask My Buddy sooner, she could have just said, “Alexa, alert Bill” and Ask My Buddy would have called my cell phone. The instructions say that you should say “Alexa, tell Ask My Buddy to alert (contact name)”, but I quickly discovered that you only need to say “Alexa, alert (contact name)”, and Alexa will respond with “I will tell Ask My Buddy to alert (contact name)”. That may seem like and inconsequential difference, but for an elderly person in distress, and possibly with confusion as well, the 3-word command is much surer than the 8-word command.” – source.
5. DAILY TXT
Text a code word to your family member or a close friend every morning, just so she knows that you are alive. It cost nothing!
If your family member or/and friend don’t live close to you make sure they have contact information for a landlord or someone else who can check on you.
It’s great if you have someone who talks to you regularly that if you suddenly stop picking up or texting back, showing up, whatever, will check on you.
6. REASSURANCE CALLS
Meals on Wheels, senior centers will do a weekday check-in call if requested.
Meals from “Meals on Wheels” are delivered weekdays over lunch by a trained volunteer who also provides a safety check if requested. Meals on wheels can be paid-for, subsidized, or free of charge.
Do you live in a town with senior centers? Some of them organize or provide a place to sign up for a daily check-in call from another senior. Of course, it obligates you to be a caller as well as a client.
Some churches and civic groups do it as well, although it may be restricted to members.
7. INSTALL KNOX LOCKBOX
Check into a Knox lockbox so that the local emergency dept has access to a key to your home in event that something tragic happens and you can call 911. Check first with your local fire department about which kind to get.
8. MEDICAL ALERT NECKLACE
With a medical alert necklace you press the call button, the device automatically dials a friend or family member on your programmed emergency call list.
“How to Choose a Medical Alert System” from AARP.
9. UNUSUAL SOLUTIONS FOR SOCIALLY ISOLATED PEOPLE
- Other options would be to tell your lawyer: “I will send an email every few days to remind you I’m alive. If you don’t get an email for a week, please have the police check on me.”
- Or you could tell your mailman to please contact the police if your mailbox fills up and hasn’t been emptied in a week.
🖊NOTE: Social isolation isn’t good. Consider joining some community group that would notice your absence, like a service group or church.
10. SIMPLY DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT
This solution themes like a jock to me, but so many people do it. I guess if you die alone your body and mind: will perish.
FAQ
How can I cope with knowing I’m going to die alone?
You cope with it by learning how to live life to the fullest now. don’t look at dying look at living!
Realize it’s a thought. It’s just a thought. A thought that creates fear. We fear death because there is something to lose, and that’s “who I take myself to be.” What matters, matters to the living.
“From the dust I came, to the dust I will return. Alone naked and scared we enter this world, the only difference is that when you die, you’ll be wearing a suit you’ll look nice in front of whatever deity you believe in.”
What happens when a person lives alone and dies?
After a couple of weeks, the body will decompose, and odor will permeate outside person’s domicile and alert someone to their potential demise.
It could take from 2 weeks to a month until the stench is strong enough for a neighbor to smell. There is a horrible smell and pretty soon you will have flies and maggots.
Sometimes a neighbor or mailman will complain to a landlord or police of an unpleasant odor.
If you live alone and estranged from your family, who will take care of your post-mortem necessities?
If you have no will, probate laws govern your estate.
Create a will and give it to your lawyer. You can provide for your pets, for example. You can even prepay your own funeral expenses or direct your estate to do so. A funeral director will be willing to meet with you in advance to make arrangements for when you die.
What happens to a person and their belongings who lives alone, then dies, has no family, no money, will, or burial wishes documented in Canada?
When a person dies and no one comes forward to claim the body after a set period of time, an investigation is launched to determine who this person is and if there is anyone who can claim the body and cover the expenses of burial. If no one is found, the responsibility of interment and cost falls onto the government, often at a county or municipal level.
The Public Trustee Office can also be contacted to aid with a reasonable search to look into the estate of the deceased. If the estate is more than $10,000 after funeral and administration fees are paid, the Public Trustee will take over the case and plan the burial. If it is less than this amount, the case is handed to the Office of the Coroner who will then issue a warrant to the municipality for burial as outlined in the Anatomy Act for that province. The city where the person has died pays for the funeral and will employ a local funeral home to manage the burial.
They may cover the cost of funeral services including transfer of the deceased from the place of death, cremation, burial plot, urn, or casket. Unclaimed bodies are buried, usually with no embalming in unmarked plots in single graves, often on the outskirts of cities. There is no name on the grave — usually, just a number, corresponding to their file in the cemetery’s record system.
Treasury Solicitor will make arrangements to sort out the deceased affairs. If the property is rented, he may ask the Council to clear the property or he might appoint a House Clearance company to do it.
The Treasury Solicitor will advertise for anyone who believes that they may have a claim on the estate to come forward.
CONCLUSION
My helpful offering to you: make a ‘phone friend.’ Someone, who like yourself, tends to be isolated, or just about anyone you know, will work. Every day make a point to call or have them call you, to say that you/they are ‘alive’ etc. That way, if you aren’t heard from as expected your friend could call the local law enforcement agency in your area to ask them to do a routine welfare check.
You don’t need to have a huge biological family or a 40-year partnership to live a fulfilling life. Go do something you love, learn new things, make friends, volunteer, help others or animals or the environment. We only get one go at life on earth!
Thanks for reading this article – I hope you found it helpful. As always, I’d love to hear from you! Have a fabulous week and take care! Irina Nikitina – Founder of Modern Fifty TV
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