View Full Version : Do any of you know a hermit?
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. :-/
He doesn't have Medicare?
No I don't know any hermits or recluses. It is interesting to try to understand what motivates this choice. Some do it for religious or spiritual reasons, some are just tired of the scramble and tensions with other human beings and others ?
My immediate response was "So?"
I wouldn't live without electricity or running water, but that's his choice.
Yes, my county is Hermit Central.
I sort of knew one. We'd ride the school bus by his gate when I was young. He was mean and packed a gun at all times. I hated riding my horse by his property if I was going over to a friends on the other side road. I knew he was a vet who didn't like people. He had a few old school buses made into a hut of sorts and a pack of dogs. In fact if I remember right that is how they figured out he had passed away. The dogs started hunting neighbors cows and pigs and the sheriff had to put down the dogs in order for the county to look for his body. Not sure how long he'd been dead.
Teacher Terry
7-29-19, 7:40pm
No. He should have Medicare.
He doesn't have Medicare?
Not yet. He should be applying, but he thinks he's just gonna get it somehow. It's hard to explain things to him when his mind is made up.
Teacher Terry
7-29-19, 9:35pm
Not only is he not going to get it but will be penalized for life for not applying on time.
I think my brother is a borderline hermit. We just call him a mountain man as he is happiest outside hiking up mountains, rafting rivers and by himself.
My immediate response was "So?"
I wouldn't live without electricity or running water, but that's his choice.
It sure is, Jane. I wasn't really asking for a judgment or solution or opinion. Just stories or experiences.
Sad Eyed Lady
7-30-19, 9:33am
I knew one who hitchhiked from Boston and ended up here and just stayed. He bought some land WAY back in the woods, and lived in a little shack back there. I guess the shack was existing when he bought the property but not sure. He had no vehicle, no electricity, water/indoor plumbing and looking back it seems he had almost nothing except his clothing. He always smelled of garlic because he carried a head of it in his pocket and nibbled on it from time to time. Two of my cousins and I walked back into his place one day. The floor was basically sawdust because he sawed his wood in there for his stove, and among the sawdust you could see coins glinting. Apparently he threw his change down there. Once he got very sick and if a neighbor hadn't found him he probably would have died. He was in mid to late 60's I think and since I was in my 20's I thought he was an old man. Somehow he was talked into leaving the place and moving into town. I am not sure how long he lived here in town, because at that time I had moved to another state but heard he was in a grocery and fell dead.
Now a friend I have known from childhood lives a somewhat hermit existence in a cabin he built himself up in a wooded area that is inaccessible to most vehicles. He does have electricity but still showers outside from something he rigged up and I think still has an outhouse. He has estranged himself from family, changed his name legally and has no contact with any family members left. He is a talented man, writes, paints and can be quiet charming when he wants, but my description of him is he is best taken in small does. But like your ex-husband KayLR, it is his choice how he lives and he seems to like it.
Thanks for the thread, I find it very interesting.
ToomuchStuff
7-30-19, 11:41am
Known a couple. Then met the cousin of a friend of mine, who owned a hardware store that was visited by a three letter agency when they looking at the famous hermit who had been buying pipe stuff there. Not all hermits are bad, though.
SadEyedLady, the first winter my ex was in Maine, he was throwing firewood down into his cellar and he fell down the stairs and upon the woodpile. He broke his ankle and screwed up his back. He lay there for a week before the mailman noticed he was snowed in. He got another guy and they dug out his "driveway" and his truck.
But when I talk to him and he tells me these things he seems quite amused by it all. Not pitiful in the least. ok, then.
I worked at the VA for many years and knew quite a few of them. Many lived isolated in the desert or in the San Bernardino mountains and would only come into town for medical help when their health had deteriorated from cancer or some other treatable illness to the point they couldn’t take care of themselves or were in pain. More than a few had stable sources of income such as social security or a pension and I could have found them housing and care but they couldn’t deal with the city, rules and noise. I also had a great uncle Virgil who had lost his wife when he was young and retreated to a shack out in the country. He had a small pension from the VA but lived without electricity or running water. He had an old truck and would go into town periodically to haul water and buy a few staples. He hunted and fished and other than that he only ate pinto beans which he bought in huge 50 pound bags and would cook a weeks worth on a wood stove. He’d leave them on the stove since he didn’t have refrigerator. Miraculously he didn’t get sick and lived to be in his early 80s. We’d go out to his shack every summer to help him clean up and my dad would lake him a lug of oranges and a big bottle of whiskey; these were his only two things he’d say he missed. Most fascinating person I knew. Most of the family were embarrassed by him, but I loved him..
Maybe it's not miraculous that Uncle Virgil lived to be 80+. He was out there in nature, no stress, living simply.
One of my favorite books--my "coffee table" book, although I don't have a coffee table is "A Handmade Life" (https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/a-handmade-life/) about William Coperthwaite. He might have been called a wacky hermit, but he wrote a book and hung out with the Nearings, so he was a "cool" hermit. When he died, just a couple of years ago, he lived like Thoreau--with living expenses under $14000 a year. He was brilliant and wise, IMHO.
Not all hermits are brilliant and wise, and some might have serious issues, but I don't think anyone should be written off because they want to live apart from other people.
Kay, I hope your ex-husband is satisfied with his path. It's hard to live with someone so off the beaten path. I don't personally know any hermits (nor a big surprise--by definition, hermits probably don't want to be known). But different strokes for different folks.
Maybe it's not miraculous that Uncle Virgil lived to be 80+. He was out there in nature, no stress, living simply.
One of my favorite books--my "coffee table" book, although I don't have a coffee table is "A Handmade Life" (https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/a-handmade-life/) about William Coperthwaite. He might have been called a wacky hermit, but he wrote a book and hung out with the Nearings, so he was a "cool" hermit. When he died, just a couple of years ago, he lived like Thoreau--with living expenses under $14000 a year. He was brilliant and wise, IMHO.
Not all hermits are brilliant and wise, and some might have serious issues, but I don't think anyone should be written off because they want to live apart from other people. ...
I can really identify with a desire for silence, and I agree that Uncle Virgil apparently knew what he was doing.
I can really identify with a desire for silence, and I agree that Uncle Virgil apparently knew what he was doing.
Remember Paul Harvey “the rest of the story”? I hadn’t thought of Virgil in many, many years and after writing the post I decided to call my Dad, now in his 80s to ask about him. Virgil had died in the early 70s when I was 14 or so. Dad told me that Virgil’s name was actually Luther! Apparently he came back from the war (WW1) scarred by the death of his good friend whose name was Virgil and started calling himself Virgil in tribute. My Dad said he came home and not long after his wife died of pneumonia so he retreated to the woods where he had an agreement with the landowner that he could live in exchange for chores. So it sounds like he had PTSD and just found it easier to retreat from society. I remember him as quiet but sweet and loved to have us kids around, albeit only for a day. Dad said when he died the sheriff called my Dad and Uncle to come clean out his belongings. They found $735 in loose change in coffee cans all around the shack. My Dad can’t remember to change his clothes sometimes but remembers that exact amount! That was a lot of money in the 70s.
But I appreciate this thread, it reminded me that Time is running out to collect these family stories, and when my Dad and uncle are gone a whole lot of family history will go with them:(
Henrysmom, thank you for sharing that.
ToomuchStuff
8-1-19, 1:55am
Maybe it's not miraculous that Uncle Virgil lived to be 80+. He was out there in nature, no stress, living simply.
One of my favorite books--my "coffee table" book, although I don't have a coffee table is "A Handmade Life" (https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/a-handmade-life/) about William Coperthwaite.
You made me go look for who was the PBS show about years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss
iris lilies
8-1-19, 7:59am
Thanks for this. I watched the entire thing. Isn’t it amazing what someone can do with only handtools.
Wow, that guy is tough as nails!
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