A story of just how weird people can get

Everyone has a story of a person they knew who was a little off their rocker. Maybe a next door neighbor, young or old. A person who lived down the street, who your parents warned you not to bother, who's yard you were dared to go into for 10 seconds and touch the porch. Well I had one of those while living with my grandparents as a teenager, and she was a wackjob.

My grandfather died when I was young and my grandmother remarried when I was about 9. She moved in with my step grandfather, who had built the center house in this culd-e-sac in the 60's with his buddies on either side. By the time I moved in to the house as a teen, my grandfather had lived there for 30 something years. I met the lady in the house to the left several times, learning that her husband was sick and had been in a hospital for some time in Colorado.

One day I am coming home from school, walking by the garage of our next door neighbor to the left on the way to my own when I hear a sound coming from the mail slot in the garage door. I stop, hear it again and then hear my name. It is the lady next door, talking through the slot, asking me to come over. I walk to the mail slot and she sticks out 20 bucks, telling me thank you for getting her groceries. I had not gotten her any groceries, so I turned it down. She starts cursing, saying Jesus is going to get me for....something. I leave, very confused. A week later I am once again coming home from school, and find about half a dozen cop cars in the drive way of the...you guessed it, house next door. Coroner van, unmarked, news vans, the works.

I am really amazed, not hard to do at that age. I rush home and ask my grandmother, who was standing in the yard, what was going on. Here it comes the finale. A local volunteer who helped the elderly would buy her groceries. The groceries would be left in front of the closed garage door and the volunteer would be paid through the mail slot. That particular day, the volunteer arrived to find an open garage door. Really curious about the inside ( and strangely why she was always purchasing lots of cans of air freshner) and under the pretense of helping the groceries into the kitchen. She opened the back door with full hands and carried the bags inside. First she was struck by the odor, like sweet, old meat. Then she noticed the bedroom door next to the kitchen. It was completely covered in duck tape. All the seems, door jam, where it met the carpet, everywhere. Concerned because she still had not seen the owner (who was taking a bath and had forgot to close the garage after taking out some trash) she pushed on the door until the tape broke and rushed inside. What she found gave me nightmares until I was 18 and moved out of that house, moved bedrooms even.

He had died probably 8 months prior to the discovery. She had dressed him, laid him on the bed and sealed the room with ducktape. She put towels into all the vents and duck taped over them. She taped all the window seams and frames. She also had been taking care of him. She would come in once a week (she told this to police later) and wipe him down with a wet towel to get all the maggots and other bugs off his flesh. His foot had at some point rotted off, it was not on the body or property when all this went down. She claimed my grandmother, the lady next door, was the virgin mary, and had told her to keep his body until he returned to it. The lady that brought her groceries was of course, the devil, sent to take her husband for ever from her. She screamed in the cop car for at least a half hour out front before they took her away.

I got my few seconds of stupid fame in the local news, saying stupid pimpled teen stuff like "that was so cool" and "really creepy". Never occurred to me until years later, how close I was to this house and totally oblivious that pure crazy was just right next door. The kind that had just lost all touch with reality. Just thought I would share a story I have not told anyone in years. Anyone hear of something similar? I would love to hear!

reply to post by Gothar


I am a lesbian so I meet crazy people all the time. When I used to live in my old town, (very small) there was around a dozen people who legitimately thought gays were possessed by demons. I kid you not.

I have never had any run ins with necro weirdos like the lady you lived by but I did live by a similar cat lady in an apartment complex I lived in. Someone would deliver groceries and she never came out of the apartment. All over the apartment were signs of "no trespassing and the windows had boards in them. As you'd walk by the stench of cat urine carried even outside the apartment. Really, really nutty people out there.

There is actually a virus you contract from cats that makes you insane. Do you know if she owned any cats? It's dubbed the cat lady virus but that's not the only transmission mode.

www.cdc.gov...

Sounds like she just couldn't let go, and snapped from the pain. Poor lady.

Not as gruesome as yours, but:

Back in the early 80s in Boston one night I took a ride on the subway. A guy gets on at the next stop and sits across from me. He had an olive green coat and a large paper grocery bag. As the train starts, he puts the bag in his lap. The bag was full of 33 1/3 LPs. He sorts through the stack, picks one, takes the record out, and sets it on his lap. He reaches left jacket pocket and pulls out a 1 lb. Bag of peanut M&Ms. Then he reaches into his right pocket and pulls out a phonograph arm. So he starts moving the needle across the record, rocking back and forth to the imaginary music, and eating M&Ms.

At the next stop, a friend of his boards the train. His friend sits down next to him and starts swaying to the music with his friend. Then, the guy says to his friend, “I think your wife is mad at me.” “Why?” the friend asks. “Because I stole some money out of her purse.” “Oh well, she’ll get over it.”

It would have been nice to listen to the rest of the conversation, but my stop came up. Besides, they were playing the music too loud.

reply to post by VictorVonDoom


There are all kinds of special people on public transport.

This post reminded me of when I was riding the bus late at night and a very flamboyant gay man was trying to catch the bus and trip and fell. The bus driving stopped per protocol and went to check on the guy. There was this homeless guy in a top hat in a wheel chair. Yes, a homeless guy in a torn suit and wearing a top hat. He started cursing and shaking his cane in a violent manner at the gay guy who was now talking to the bus driver. Then he actually gets up and starts walking toward the gay guy and the gay says "Really? That's all it took to cure you?" At that point the bus driver told both of them to take a seat.

He sat down. The rest of bus trip he was cursing and saying every name that could exist toward the gay man who was then sitting in back with headphones.

Buses are pools for the mentally ill.

Good times.

OrphanApology
reply to post by Gothar

 

I am a lesbian so I meet crazy people all the time.

LOL

If we were to learn of the things most of our neighbours do behind closed doors, we'd all be fighting in line for that one way ticket to Antartica.

reply to post by Gothar


This was not the post to read while I was eating a slice of pizza!

That is crazy, though. I often wonder what is going on behind closed doors.

Just like this one from a few days ago.
Perhaps its more common than people realise...

Widow Sleeps With Dead Husband's Decomposing Corpse For A Year After His Death

...and that article also mentions another previous example from last year.

reply to post by Gothar

Suddenly, my neighbors don't seem so bad.

These stories always remind me of "A Rose for Emily".

Anyone know of any stories where men keep their dead spouses? Beside Ed Gein?

Seems there's a bunch of these stories with women keeping dead boyfriends and husbands. Creepy. Wonder why?

reply to post by Gothar


There is no mention of how old the lady was. Was she a really old woman or just off her rocker? There's a lot of strange people.

reply to post by OrphanApology


It would take an in depth psychological profile to begin to get some understanding of people like that. People can be very complex.

reply to post by nuguy


she was in her 80's, if I remember correctly