Thursday, July 12, 2007

Residual Dining

Earlier this week, I had the misfortune of not noticing my neighbor's truck parked opposite our driveway as I pulled out to go do the news at night. A small dent in the fender led to notes left, phone calls made, and a visit last night by my neighbor to fill out an accident report for his work place.

We haven't had a lot of neighbors in our house since we moved in 2 years ago just because our house is an infinite work in progress. Although, Matt did make great progress in the living room this week. One of the things we do almost immediately after moving in was rip up carpet from the floors all through out the house. The hardwood floors underneath need to be re-finished, but still look good enough to be exposed.

As our neighbor walked into our dining room to go over the paperwork, he looked over to his left at the floor near our china cabinet.

"And that would be where Mrs. White died," he stated as if pointing out something on a tour.

"Mrs. White? That must have been three owners ago?" I asked.

"Yes. Yes, that's where I found her," the neighbor replied. "That's probably why the wood is discolored. You know, from the fluids that collected underneath her."

I stared at the spot on the floor he was gesturing toward and considered the fact that not only did someone die in our house, but left a reminder of that on our floor.

Matt and I see the people who moved into the house after Mrs. White died often since we work in similar circles. It sticks in my mind that the wife said they used to see a ghost of an elderly woman in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Since the house was built in 1920, I wasn't overly surprised that someone had died in our house. My parents are the second owners of their house, which was built in 1950. The first owner's wife, Helen, died in the living room on the couch of that house. When I was a kid, I used to joke that Helen was haunting the toilet in the basement because it would flush all by itself.

6 comments:

battlemaiden said...

That is really creepy. Does the floor smell like the "fluids"?

Julia said...

I doubt it. It's been quite awhile since she died. I suppose I could get down on my hands and knees and do a Kim/Aggie ala "How Clean Is Your House" and give the floor a good sniff.

Either way, I'm not sure I know what dead body fluids smell like. Don't spend enough time in the morgue I guess.

Anonymous said...

Ew. Ew ew ew. Ew. Fluids...that's just wrong. Nice of your neighbor to point that out to you.

...court

Mr. Nighttime said...

You see dead people.......;-)

Mr. Social said...

One night I came home to find a decapitated body lying on the floor of our kitchen. I had my daughter help me clean up the mess and we got rid of the evidence with a large plastic garbage bag. Then we went back to the supermarket and bought another rotisserie chicken. I carried it this time.

Kevin_H said...

That's really low class and in poor taste of your neighbor to tell you that. Especially about the discoloring of the floor.

Post a Comment

Cutting to the Scene with the Pixie

Ten years ago, I decided to do one of the most drastic things I had ever done to my hair. I went from a long style (below collarbone) to a p...