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MANY LONELY IN THE CITY: Social Councilor Rina Mariann Hansen believes that the citizens of Oslo must contribute to making the capital a city where people feel a sense of belonging and community. – I think we should worry more in everyday life, worry about who our neighbors are and how they feel, he says. Photo: Frode Hansen
A retired man was dead for nine years before someone found him. – In a big city like Oslo, there are sadly many who live anonymous and often lonely lives, says the council for social services.
– It is very sad to hear of people dying alone without relatives to call them, writes Oslo councilor for social services Rina Mariann Hansen (Labor Party) in an email to VG.
On Saturday, NRK published a case about an elderly man who lay dead in his apartment for a full nine years before he was found. The man was retired and lived in a block east of Oslo.
The man died in 2011, for natural reasons. For the past nine years, according to NRK, neighbors believed he was in an institution or that he had moved.
The man is not the only one who has not been detected for a long time after his death.
According to NRK, last year 27 people in Oslo, Asker and Bærum died for more than seven days before being found. In 2019, there were 32 people, including a woman who was found dead in her apartment on Grünerløkka in Oslo. Then she had been lying there for five months.
FOUND AFTER FIVE MONTHS: In July 2019, a woman was found dead in her apartment on Grünerløkka in Oslo. Then she had been lying there for five months. Photo: Hallgeir Vagenes
– In a big city like Oslo, sadly there are many who live anonymous and often lonely lives, sometimes self-selected. Busy city life can make it easier for us as human beings to forget to take care of ourselves, says Social Services Councilor Hansen.
– I think we should worry more in everyday life, worry about who our neighbors are and how they feel. Maybe ask a little more often how they are doing.
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Between 2013 and 2017, there were 140 people in Oslo who lay dead for more than a week, according to a summary by Aftenposten in 2018.
The Council for Social Services believes that the case shows that all citizens of Oslo must contribute to making the capital a city where people feel a sense of belonging and community.
– We can all do our part to make Oslo a warmer and more inclusive city.
– The pandemic has taught us something about what lack of human contact does to us in everyday settings. Perhaps the experiences we are having now during the pandemic allow us, as a society, to take better care of each other.
Oslo Councilor for Health, Aging and Citizen Services Robert Steen (Labor Party) did not have a chance to comment on the matter on Saturday.
