Wednesday 17 August 2011

Beyond Single Ladies' Worst Nightmares

You know, I like to emphasize the positive. But sometimes a Single woman is treated so horribly, I am forced to contemplate Single Ladies' Worst Nightmares.

I bet you haven't yet had the one where you go to visit your aged parents for the weekend and gypsies move into your house. Well, voila.

Today feel free to share your worst Single Lady nightmare in the combox. It can be a projected Widow Lady nightmare, too, if that might apply.

17 comments:

Eowyn said...

Shooooot. That's ridiculous. I don't think I actively have any Single Lady Nightmares, except perhaps that there is no one to notice if I don't come home at night, or no one to notice if I have unwanted visitors, thoughts which can be extrapolated into various nightmares.

Meg said...

Choking to death on a piece of popcorn alone in my apartment. Having a stroke along in my apartment. Having a book case fall on me while I am alone in my apartment and being unable to remove it and starving to death.

margaret said...

Having read of Miss High's experience most of my worries fade into insignificance although I do share Meg's worries to the extent that I have sponge baths a lot to avoid slipping in the shower and breaking my hip. Mind you, an old friend who is also a pain in the neck and not at all Cary Grant in the looks department, got worried when I forgot to tell him I was going to the US and phoned my confessor and went on at length about how he misses drinking wine with me in the evenings (we're talking once in a blue moon around 5pm). Luckily my confessor knows me pretty well and thought it was all rather hilarious but said friend is in for an earwigging when I next see him.

Kate P said...

That poor woman! I hadn't thought specifically about gypsies, but definitely coming home and finding someone there that shouldn't be is on my list.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if this counts as a Single Lady Nightmare but this topic reminds me of the time I went to mass on Valentines Day. The priest asked the men and women to sit on different sides of the church (married women and children included). So there I was sitting in the middle of wives and daughters sitting apart from their families when after the homily the priest asked the families to reunite. All, most, of the women went to the other side to their husbands. I was left sitting alone in and empty pew. I felt really 'singled' out. Not a nightmare I guess but it brought attention to my single state on a day when I'm typically sensitive about the issue anyway.

Jam said...

This post reminds me of the episode of 30 Rock where Liz Lemon bonds with a lesbian woman over their shared fear of dying alone in their apartment and not being found for days. The episode is called Blind Date (1st season), and it's a lot funnier than I'm making it sound.

Little Mary said...

Being an elderly gal with failing health with nobody to help her...

Seraphic said...

Anonymous, that is AWFUL!!!! I thought the "all the women with children stand for applause" made up ritual for St. Mother's Day was bad, but that REALLY takes the cake. St. Valentine isn't really in the calendar anymore (which I deplore, since he very well may have existed and I have seen a skull that priests swore up and down was his), so the priest was pulling these shenanigans on the feast of two holy and SINGLE men called St. Cyril and St. Methodius.

I think a little letter to that priest detailing how you felt would be a charitable act, not only so that he can understand how he has failed as a pastor (and therefore ccan repent, confess and be forgiven), but so he doesn't hurt other Single people again.

Seraphic said...

My projected Widow Lady nightmare is having to live in nearby Council Housing terrorized by illiterate drug dealers and their dogs. I can just see the basement flat with its barred windows and 1970s-rust orange cotton curtains. UGH!

Anonymous said...

I have one - this can happen to you even when you are not old if you are single. A few years ago when I had a bad car accident, I hadn't recovered from my head injury and decided to go to graduate school in another state. Somebody I thought was a friend said she would house sit, etc.

After a month or so, it was obvious I was not yet ready for "brain work" and I was flunking my classes, so called the woman and told her I was coming home at the end of the semester.

Turns out she had put a tenant in my house, I never got any rent from her, the tenant trashed my house, insurance didn't cover it all, and I am still working on fixing the last of it with the help of some friends.

I had to retain an attorney and evict the "tenant" long distance, because I couldn't come home until that &^%$* was out of my house. She ignored the court order from the judge but did leave before I had to have the police haul her belongings to the curb and physically escort her out. She left cans of paint upside down, threw salsa on the walls that I thought was blood at first . . . It was horrible.

Just realized this is WAY too long. This probably goes on a lot more than you read about. My attorney said she was familiar with all her rights, dragged out the court proceedings, and is probably still doing this.

As for the so called friend who rented my house to her in the first place, when I say my prayers at night, the best I can do as far as forgiveness is "God, please help me to love the people I ought to but just flat can't." I am still tempted to go to her church and just start sitting behind her to see if I can shame her into paying me back.

Isabella of the north

Mrs McLean said...

Oh dear, Isabella. That's even worst than the gypsy story!

Anonymous said...

Regarding Anonymous’ comments about church; I’ve had similar circumstances with the parish church I was raised in which made me avoid mass on occasions that focused on family such as Mother’s Day. But it was a particular local Catholic television program that prompted me to finally write a letter to the archdiocese. Although I caught the program a couple of minutes after it started, it only took the comment I heard from their guest speaker to never watch their programming again. She said something to the affect of “they don’t have to enter the seminary, they’re not dogs somebody would marry them. I find this insulting not only to singles, but to those that enter the seminary, and most importantly to God. I wrote the station and the archdiocese about both and to this day I have not received a response. I have since found another parish church that has been more understanding of their parishioners and their living situations.

Stephanie

The Crescat said...

Mine is the nightmare where I die and my family has an ugly and embittered battle over custody of my son despite my will and last wishes, since I am single and have no spouse to be his guardian. The worst of this scenario is my ex-husband and son's father suddenly showing up to declare custody after a eight year absence.

*shudder*

Catholic Bibliophagist said...

I've been a widow for 5 years, but had not yet thought of any Single Lady's Nightmares.

However, here is one that happened to a single, diabetic friend of ours, albeit a unisex incident. He had a heart attack while taking a bath. His corpse remained in the tub until a friend realized he was missing and called his parents to unlock the house and check on him.

It was a very sad incident and must have been horrible for his parents.

Sheila said...

Mine is of a story I read years ago that always terrified me. It was about a single mother who had just come home from the hospital after having a baby. There was no one to stay with her, and so there was no one to give her medical attention when she began to hemorrhage. By the time people started getting concerned enough to call and eventually break down her door, she had died of blood loss and her baby had died of dehydration.

When I had my son, I had my husband and in-laws with me for a week, and then they all left, husband included (for work in another city). I was terrified something would happen to me and no one would be there to take care of the baby. I called my mom several times a day just so she would know to worry if I didn't call! Another friend checked in on me a couple times a week, but still ... I breathed a huge sigh of relief when that stage of my life was over.

Oh, and Seraphic, if you think this is too scary, don't post it. It's ranked on my list of "most horrifying news stories I ever shouldn't have read."

Emma said...

I don't think the gypsies moving into your house is just a single person's nightmare. I could imagine a family going on vacation and being terrified to hear that gypsies have moved into their house. That's more of a homeowner's nightmare.

theobromophile said...

Two weeks ago, my mother was alone in her house and collapsed after a massive pulmonary embolism. Had she not been strong enough to dial a phone, she would be dead now.

I don't know if it counts as a Single Lady nightmare, or a nightmare averted, but there it is.