I live alone – I have no family, it’s just me – and I have nightmares about dying at home unexpectedly and nobody finding me for four years! That scares me…” Some of the other members of tonight’s meeting nod sombrely at these words – the woman speaking is far from alone in this primal fear.
Her comment has followed a lively discussion about what happens if you drop dead in the street – specifically, whether the police will be able to identify you if there are no family members to do it. “I think it would be so easy if we all had our NHS numbers tattooed on us,” another woman muses, and the group laughs along at the thought. Someone else offers a more commonsense approach: she pre-emptively wears an “SOS” locket bracelet containing her name, national insurance number and contact details for her trusted solicitor, who has access to her funeral plan and will.
