Living alone, dying alone
With more New Zealanders than ever leading solitary lives, Tara Shaskey investigates what happens when a person with no immediate relationships dies.
Slavko Nikolovski’s personality was as bright and vivid as the dazzling array of chillies, peppers and grapes that he used to grow in his backyard.
‘‘I live in paradise,’’ the Macedonian-born Nikolovski told Stuff in 2016 while looking admiringly around the small townhouse from which he grew, sold and gifted vegetables.
Nikolovski didn’t expect payment, and would leave a handwritten note for shoppers in the purpose-built shed which read: ‘‘If you have no money or not enough to pay full price, you are welcome to still enjoy my vegetables. Take what you need.’’
So, when a tiny pile of grass clippings sat untouched in the usually-immaculate yard of New Plymouth’s ‘fruit and vegetable man’, alarm bells rang for his neighbour.
Nikolovski, 83, was dead inside his New Plymouth home alone on August 9. There were no suspicious circumstances.
But when the neighbour spotted the pile of green waste they knew something had gone wrong. Nikolovski’s passion for gardening was well known. In life he would have never left clippings overnight.
Police were called to the house and his body was discovered.
While Nikolovski was a solitary person with no family in New Zealand, he was not alone. He was a beloved character known for feeding the community and there were many who wanted to pay their respects following news of his death.
But funeral arrangements were stalled for nearly three weeks while police, neighbours and friends worked to track down his next-of-kin and establish his final wishes.
For all of his adoration, there was no person readily available to give lawful instruction on a funeral for Nikolovski.
Nikolovski had moved to New Zealand about five decades before to pursue an engineering career, leaving behind his family in Macedonia.
‘‘We couldn’t get in touch with his family,’’ longtime friend Natalia Potich earlier told Stuff of the funeral delay.
‘‘The executor of his will passed away just over a year ago and so we had to get permission from the family through the police to do anything.’’
That was eventually achieved and Nikolovski was farewelled in a public service in New Plymouth, and then cremated. His family held a more traditional celebration of his life in Macedonia.
Nikolovski isn’t the only elderly person to die alone, removed from family.
Census data shows more of us are living alone than ever before.
Newly released figures shows that 405,000 people now live alone, 36,000 more than in 2013.
The New Zealand General Social Survey shows that only 61 per cent of people said they were never lonely, compared to 63.9 per cent in the last census. Another 13.1 per cent felt lonely some of the time, compared to
10.3 per cent and 3.5 per cent said they were lonely most or all of the time, barely changed from 3.6 per cent last time.
A 2016 Ministry of Social Development study into isolation, called The Social Report, showed that 10 per cent of New Zealanders aged 65 to 74, and 13 per cent of those aged over 75 feel lonely all, most, or some of the time.
Evidence of the isolation is seen in the increasingly common story of an elderly person lying dead in their home for days, weeks or sometimes months before anyone notices.
Bryan McGinty, 73, lay dead for up to five days before his body was found in his Manurewa property earlier this year on June 24.
In August 2011, Michael Clarke, 86, was dead for more than a year before his body was discovered in his Wellington home.
Months after his death in
2009, 68-year-old Wiremu Whakaue was found in a Wellington City Council flat in Berhampore during an annual fire alarm inspection in March
2010.
And five years later, Dean Stewart, in his 60s, died in that same council residence, laying undiscovered for a month.
Abraham’s Funeral Home manager Mark Baker, of New Plymouth, said if someone dies without a known next-of-kin or a last will and testament a search, usually involving police, will begin.
But more often than not the deceased will have a connection with someone from within the community who can help, be that a friend, neighbour, social worker or a carer from a rest home or hospital, he said.
‘‘Generally someone comes forward and provides guidance on how to track down family members.’’
In the meantime, the body is usually kept at the hospital mortuary until funeral instructions are received, he said.
In rare circumstances, however, if no next-of-kin is found after a couple weeks of searching, and if the deceased has no assets, an indigent burial may be held, Baker said.
According to the Burial and Cremation Act of 1964 local authorities could permit a cremation or burial in a cemetery, free of charge, for any person unable to afford it, provided their financial situation was verified by a Justice.
The body would be released from the mortuary and into the care of a funeral home. The home would then provide a basic casket and deliver the deceased to the crematorium or cemetery, all free of charge.
Ashes would generally be interred in a Garden of Remembrance, Baker said.
‘‘We have done that once or twice over the years but that’s where there’s absolutely no people around,’’ he said.
‘‘The process can usually be quite delayed just because we spend time trying to track people down.’’
In Baker’s experience, people who are farewelled in these circumstances chose to lead reclusive lives.
‘‘For whatever reason they’ve decided to withdraw from contact with people.’’
When someone dies without a will, it’s called dying intestate.
In this situation, the law determines who will inherit the deceased’s property and possessions but there is a formal process which must be followed.
Public Trust principal trustee Debbie Smith said if next-of-kin can not be found then, as per the Administration Act 1969, trustee companies, like Public Trust, can apply to the High Court to become administrator of the estate.
‘‘We can then call in all the assets, like bank accounts and life insurances. We pay the liabilities of the estate and we also determine who are the beneficiaries,’’ Smith said.
But if there are no identified beneficiaries, friends or next-ofkin, they would call on a private investigator or a genealogist to take a look at the family tree.
‘‘Quite often they’re overseas. It could be distant relatives who can benefit,’’ she said.
Smith said almost half of New Zealanders do not have a will, making settling an estate, even with known family, a long process.
But if someone has died alone, with no next-of-kin or will, it could take a couple of years, she said.
Meanwhile, all of their valuable and sentimental property is stored while the search for family continues.
‘‘But if it’s furniture and effects and no body wants it we can sell it, so as executor we would have to make those decisions.’’
‘‘Which is also another reason to have a will because you don’t want an unknown executor coming in and making those decisions on your behalf.’’