Only a Brief Sentence

Anita was a neighbour of mine in Chelsea, and several residents in the square were very sorry to hear of her death. We tried to be courteous to her when we met her, but she was always alone, never with a single person in the decades she lived here. It seemed a shame, for such an intelligent woman. She was always very polite, but it was only a brief sentence to any of us that knew her, and met her when she was out walking. I am glad to know that she died in her sleep, but the truth was that she was not given enough care in hospital, due to nurses being short staffed, and she was not got out of bed and given rehabilitation. This was following a serious fire a few weeks ago, due to her smoking, from which she was rescued. We will all miss her, as she was a resident for so many years in the square. 

The above was an anonymous reader's comment appended to A. N. Wilson's Mail Online obituary article* from March last year. I have mentioned both before. Previously I didn't quote the comment in full, but a moment in my own life returned me this evening to the topic.

* The online version of the article is unsatisfactory in that it stops mid-sentence, before the scene from the print version mentioned in a previous post: Brookner sitting alone in a bedroom at a party.