A friend of mine often trail rides alone, and her husband works in Europe quite a bit of the time. She has a phone app called Road ID that will alert someone if her GPS shows no movement for a set number of minutes. Not great if you’re sitting watching TV, but if you’re a runner or rider and injured, it could save your life.
StG
It can be shockingly difficult to get women’s slacks with usable pockets.
When I went jeans-shopping a while back, I slipped my phone into the pocket of each pair I was considering before I even took it off the rack. A very small percentage of them could hold my phone (admittedly a larger “phablet”-sized one).
Last fall I needed to get some dress slacks for work. I bought two identical pairs in different colors. The pockets were basted shut so I couldn’t try that trick. And it turned out the pocket was far too shallow. I was able to partly wedge the phone in but only around the office; I would not have dared carry the phone that way out on the street. I returned the second pair.
The best thing to do is to have somebody with us always when we have a chronic illness or at least inform our closest friend or co-workers. Maybe, we could give them some personal instructions when an accident happens to us.
Life hack: if there’s a pocket there, even one that’s too shallow to use, you can usually get a tailor to replace the useless pocket with a useful one.
Effectively no women’s pockets are deep enough. You want your cell phone to sit far enough down your leg that it’s below the “bend” when you sit. You need pants that are loose in the front door that to work, but when it works, it’s awesome. Doing this has revolutionized my life. 
Interesting trick - I had never thought of that. I’ll have to look into it.
Continuing the pockets hijack: I bought a jacket recently, during a weekend trip to NYC. For various reasons, I needed to have things accessible, pocket-wise (versus stuck in my backpack). The jacket I got had 2 large patch pockets that snapped shut, regular slide-in pockets directly behind those, two breast pockets that also snapped shut, and two zippered pockets directly above the patch pockets.
Only… I forgot to check those zippered pockets before I bought the jacket.
I got it back to my hotel, and attempted to use them… and they were FAKE. Not “sewn shut because nobody wants to ruin the line of their clothing but you can rip out the basting stitches if you’re one of those losers who values function over form”… they were completely “decorative”. ARGH!!!:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
The jacket is still quite useful - those large patch pockets are more than enough for the phone and charger and any other miscellany - but it’s just that much less useful than it should have been.
In my mid 20s I lived on my own and overdid it in the garden one saturday. Managed to trap a nerve or something in my back and ended up lying on the floor unable to move for 24+ hours. My mobile was upstairs on charge and the landline was too far away.
Shortly afterwards, a guy at work in his early 30s had an embolism in the shower and they found his very clean corpse a few days later.
Since those 2 events, my mobile has never been more than an arms reach away. Bad stuff can happen at any age.
Very true, Jacob Swan. Accidents need not be fatal, and a sprained back will happen at some point to most of us.
Another consideration is the possibility that a stroke might leave people disoriented. They might have a phone within arms reach, but be too disoriented to call a number.
I recommend everyone familiarize themselves with the symptoms of a stroke,( the FAST method. Learn it, teach it to others, and read about it anew every year on a set date). And with the symptoms of an heart attack. Especially in women, the symptoms of a heart attack are nothing like we’re taught in the movies. Check out the resources at Go Red For Women. Especially this hilarious clip of Elisabeth Banks getting “just a little a heart attack”
… and if you know the symptoms, and get something like those sympoms, then have the courage to call 911. Better be embarrassed then dead. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your loved ones. How would they feel to know that you are dead, but might have lived, if only you had known about the symptoms and had called for help in time?
Strokes and heart attacks don’t “pass” but might, depending on severity, impair your ability to call for help. You might have only a short window of time to call for help. Don’t let that window close because you’re embarassed.
Here’s a stroke surviver talking about the experience. He went from “something is not right” to paralysed within a few minutes. His wife called 911. People living alone have to call 911 themselves.
Ahh yes, We’ll just swing by the ‘close friends, trustworthy coworkers, kind next-door-neighbors, and reliable local adult kids’ store and pick up a couple of those to attach to ourselves every time we feel unwell or elderly. Once we’ve purchased one, do you think one of those leashes for kids would suffice, or should we actually velcro them directly to us so they don’t get away?
You’re not wrong. But that’s not exactly helpfully phrased advice.
Well…I sacrificed an office to make it a really nice guest room. (My desk is now in my living room). My dad can bunk there when he feels under the weather.
There are always people in need of living quarters, willing to pitch in with rent money, chores and help. And if you hand pick them, instead of having them foisted upon you, you ensure the best chance of a mutually beneficial match. And while the thought of a “stranger in the house” sounds unappealing, remember that it only takes a few weeks to get used to someone.
And unlike a marriage, when such a roommate doesn’t work out, you both move on to a better match.
So, living alone quite likely means you have room to spare.
Years ago I used to work at mortuary and after hours my friend and I did “removals”. One call was for a guy who fell and hit his head on the fridge. He was in his t-shirt and underwear and the officer who found him said he probably died the night before. I don’t remember who said it, but either my friend or the officer pointed out the business card for a girlie bar on the fridge and said, “Well at least he had a good night before he died.”
I don’t worry about dying alone, but I’m always aware of what I leave around when they come and get me!
You should start a “ask the former employee of a mortuary”- thread, lingyi.
I worked in the office during the day so don’t have a lot of stories to tell. But I did see people being embalmed and a nasty accident and suicide though. Don’t want to give too many details as those I’ve told the stories to personally might know that lingyi is me. 
Author Richard Brau5itqn wasn’t found until about a month after he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
When I worked in real estate, I got a call from the daughter of a man who lived alone and whose house we had listed. The agent opened the house and the stench alone was enough for him to leave and call the police. They figured he had died in his wheelchair about a week prior to finding him.
My Mom also has a medical alert necklace. She’s very good about keeping it with her. She also carries a cell phone.
And, will it’s not a great solution, she emails me every morning. If I don’t hear by noon, I know something is up (she’s never forgotten).
I’ve recently started to use Dead Man’s Switch, a software solution that holds a (final) email message in storage until preset queries from the software go unanswered.
It makes me crazy to think that if I die, my pets might suffer too.
Here’s the email message that I composed:
***This message was sent from an internet software program that I set up called “Dead Man’s Switch.”
This software is designed to notify you in case I am incapacitated (or worse). The software requires that I check in daily. If I miss a check in, the software will send this message.
If you have received this message, there’s a good chance that I AM incapacitated (or worse), and that (Pet 1) and (Pet 2) are alone and in danger.
PLEASE make an effort to contact me ASAP.
Thanks.***
A Lifetime Premium Upgrade of $20 allows up to 100 recipients, 100 messages and custom interval setting.
I’m not alone very often, but when I am, this gives me a little peace of mind.
I’m not sure if I’ve set it up properly to get a daily check. I also wonder what time of day they query me and how long I have to answer. Maybe I’ll get my first check-in by tomorrow and will have a better idea of how it works. I’ll still email my kids each morning but it’s getting kind of old, maybe too routine after five years, so this additional safeguard is just what I’ve been looking for. Thanks for posting about it.
If you are using the Free version, I think the intervals for a daily check are the same as the “Test” option, but I don’t know if they continue indefinitely. I thought having more than 2 email addressees was worth the $20 for the Premium version, so I didn’t mess with the free version.
As I wanted a daily check, the intervals are “1” and “2” (1,2) which is the same as the Test setting.
I did do some testing before I went live, and I found that the “1” interval is roughly equivalent to 24 hours.
The clock is reset any time you respond to a query, or when you log in to the site.