September 3, 2021. Western Head, Nova Scotia. Our Neighbors the Hermits.

A blue house sits across the street from me and a bit up the hill. Rochelle and Brad have lived there since 1996. I met them when I invited them to a dinner party in 1999. They came for the cocktail but had told me they would not stay for dinner. When they were leaving, Rochelle said to me,"Please do not invite us to other parties because we do not do social". Belive it or not, I have never seen them since even though they live just across the steet. Brad and Rocllle were writers. Rochelle is physically handicapped with a large hump on her back and hips not ligned up. Mobility is difficult. They were happy closed up in their house. I never saw them on their deck or outside the back. Two weeks ago I eceived a call from Rochelle. A box was delivered to her by mistake. I arranged to have Anna pick up the box the following Friday. During our conversation she told me that Brad had died in March suddenly at 74 from a heart attach. Now Rochelle is living by herself with no help and her cook Brad no longer cooking. Anna and I invited her for coffee which she accepted and came the next week. Our visit was pleasant and she seemed to enjoy the visit. Part of me is sympathetic to her plight but part of me realizes that she has reaped what she sowed. She shut out the world and now her world contains only herself. Sad but true. Anna and I will invite her over again before I leave and I will give her the numer of Earth Angels. But I can not do much else. When she came over last week for coffee I would not have recognized her. But I only met her once in 1999 and I had never seen either of them again. Hard to fathom for sure.