The Loneliness Files

A Book (And My Life)

If you were to look at my recent Google search history, this is what you would find:

• What happens to unclaimed bodies?

• What happens to my pets and belongings?

• What if no one finds me? 

Please be clear, I have no plans. 

However, when you live with the depth of isolation and loneliness that I do, these are the thoughts that cross my mind on the regular. 

The truth is that I already know the answers. 

When my mom passed away in 2001, she didn’t have a support system either. However, she had me. I tried my hardest, in the midst of my clumsy grief, to care for her physical body and the items that she loved with gentleness and reverence. 

I wish this society had death care helpers for those of us who don’t have people. They’d make sure our pets found good homes and that our items, seen as trash by the rest of the world, would be treated with tenderness. 

What a cruel existence this is without community. 

We aren’t meant to do life alone. 

Start by building community with your neighbors - your unhoused neighbors as well. 

They are a unhoused because of systemic failures, not because of their own moral failings as society would have you believe.

What ONE step can you take today to build a sense of community? 

This is how it starts - one person, one step and one outstretched hand at a time. 

That was incredibly corny but y’all know what I mean. 

This is on us, we’re all we’ve got. 

Take care of each other out there. 

In solidarity & rest,

Robin