Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked

I guess both Trainer and I are both wicked because neither of us is resting this Memorial Day Holiday. He’s working — the studio is open today, so I had my regular workout this Monday morning, even though I offered to not so he could be home with his family.

Heading to the Pain Cave this morning, I stopped by the dumpster to toss the trash and encountered a dumpster full to overflowing — a sign that someone has died, and their unit is being cleared out.

I don’t know if the unit being cleared is one of the three deaths Red Light told me of, or yet another, a fourth. But, either way, that’s a lot. We usually don’t see deaths until closer to the end of the year, when people decide they’re done, don’t want to see another year, and give up. To see so many deaths this time of year indicates to me that folks are giving up sooner because the world and everything in it is so screwed up.

At any rate, two residents were having a discussion at the dumpster. I heard one say, "What difference does it make? She’s dead. They have to clean out the unit". Let’s call him Man 1.

The other, Man 2, was saying something about "memorabilia" to which Man 1 replied, "They didn’t care about her. None of them ever visited her".

It was then I noticed Man 2 was holding a Creative Memories Photo Album. I stepped in and said, "That’s a Creative Memory Scrapbook".

Man 2 said he’d pulled it out of the trash, along with other photos.

Appalled, but not surprised that management would toss precious old photos — because they're ruthless, don't care, I offered to take what Man 2 had saved from destruction, see if I could research names mentioned in the album and on the back of photos, find a family member to send to. I also told Man 2 that I’d post to social media, see if anyone recognized their childhood photo.

Judging from what I’ve deduced so far, this is an old photo of the resident who passed away.

It's hard to tell how she might have looked more recently, but I don’t recognize seeing anyone who looked remotely similar.

Man 2 tells me her name is Bonita and, "She’s the woman who used to walk around with a little dog".

THAT describes three-quarters of the female population here. They mostly all walk around with little dogs.

I did find a document with her full name, researched that and found her Facebook page.

The page hasn't been active since 2018, but four friends are listed.

I sent all four the following message: "Hello. Bonita Jean Millard recently passed away. I see you are listed as a FB Friend. Management at the senior complex she was living in tossed family photo albums, photos, letters in the trash. Another neighbor and I retrieved those items from trash and are trying to locate a family member of hers that might want the memorabilia. Can you help. Do you know any of her people?"

It’s a start.

There are also letters I can go through, look for names and mailing addresses.

I’d post some of this stuff to Reddit, ask for help, but Reddit is too much technology for me. I’ll stick to Facebook.