July 12, 2004

• i went home early on friday night and bumped into my neighbour in the elevator.  there was an awkward silence.  i tried the break the ice and asked if she has a cat as i hear it meowing sometimes.  her eyes lit up.  "yes i do!  you MUST come in to visit us - i'm sure you'll love melina-boy.  please come"  how do you refuse an invite like that?  i trotted after her into the apartment then sat down on the floor for a chat where i proceeded to learn more about this woman than i had for the 4 years we've been neighbours

  
  

  my neighbour is 40 years old and just quit her job as it was getting "a little too much".  she is rediscovering her what's important to her, reconnecting with her family, etc.   she feels that her entire life has been a mirage and without her job she's left with nothing 

  
  

  however

  
  

  what really disturbed me was how she repeated her conversation, word for word.  "my cat is so fat - he weighs 16  pounds - there was this one time when i had to take him to the vet, i put a leash on him and people thought he was a dog!"  word for word.  once every 15 min or so.  i can still hear her voice in my head repeating the same sentence.  the first 2 times i thought oh well i guess people repeat things when they get older, but at the 4th and 5th time i started getting quite worried. 

  
  

  poor woman must've gone through some serious trauma.  all the time she was smiling but i could feel the loneliness pouring out of her

  
  

  i don't want to end up like that... seriously underweight alone at 40 living in a cramped 500 sq ft apartment with an overweight cat repeating the same stories to strangers like a broken record.  [play.stop.rewind.play]

  
  

  but who am i to judge her?  i am sure plenty of us are equally flawed and messed up one way or the other... 

  • 3:52 am
  • 2 Comments