It seems I do, now.
My ex-husband lives off the grid in Maine. I just spoke to him this past weekend and had not talked to him in a year or so. He had an old flip phone he buys "timecards" for and it had quit (the speaker wore out, he said). So when a "neighbor" (5 miles away) was helping him set it up, she found a message on it from me "from June."
It was June of 2017. Right after my mom died.
He told me more about his living conditions than he had told me before. He has no electricity, but has solar panels and a generator. He goes to the store once a month. His floor is unfinished. He doesn't have a bathroom or shower.
He used to be a great outdoorsman and guy who could build or fix anything (he's 65 in Oct). Now he says he pretty much stays in and reads all the time. The only time he says he can be comfortable outside is September because the deer flies are gone and the moose flies aren't there yet. He's given up hunting because 1- he would rather just look at them and 2- if he did kill a deer or moose, he'd have to haul it back to the cabin in butt-deep snow and his back and feet are bad.
He was in the VA for 5 days last winter he said, with pneumonia, bronchitis and congestive heart failure. His family knew none of this. (We have two daughters and he has a brother here locally.)
He says it's 3 hr. to the VA and there are no clinics who will take cash. He has no insurance, so the clinics within an hour will not see him.
He finally gave me the number of his neighbor so that if we stop hearing from him again I can call and ask about him. I asked him to give her my number but I don't know if he will.
He finally told me he still likes where and how he's living because "I don't see any people."
I guess I should feel privileged that he talked to me for about an hour that day. :-/
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Originally Posted by Yppej
