Thoughts Upon Death, Resurrection, and the Lil Old Lady in the Stairwell

Note: If you are someone who is overly sensitive about death, you might want to skip this one.

Still here? Great. Now, some of you may recall me writing about the little old lady (and by little I mean she rests her head on the railing) that stands in the stairwell here in my flat building. Not everyday, but at least 5 times a week, I'd see her there. Just standing. Sometimes she would try to speak to me, once she just poked her head out of her doorway like the Serbian version of "Laugh-in" or "You Can't Do That on Television." Most of the time she just stood there quietly until I was two steps from the landing, which startled me a bit. I used to joke that, just as every troll has its bridge and dragon has its cave, so too does this little old lady have her stairwell.

At least, she did.

You see, I hadn't seen her for a few days. Then I walk up the stairs and, instead of seeing her, I see a coffin and a cross with the dates 1928-2007.

After getting over my shock of "There's a coffin. In my stairwell. Ok...", I started thinking "Oh gods, what if, by talking about this little old lady, I've killed her?!?" And we had just started getting along so well, me saying random English greetings to her, her saying something back in Serbian. And now she was gone. For days people would be standing in the stairwell, talking, crying. Then they slowly stopped showing up, and the hallways were empty again.

Until yesterday, the day I realised the little old lady was no longer dead.

Like every other night after work, I ran up the stairs to my room. I was just about to turn the corner when suddenly I saw her in her old spot, looking over the railing in a very "Snoopy" way.
Now, having thought she was dead for the last 4 days, I was a bit surprised. I would have thought "Zombie!" except that typically zombies say things like "Brains!" (which brings up an interesting point - what happens when you have a room full of zombies that all speak different languages? do they just assume that they are all saying brains, do they have to translate it, or do they just ignore it... I know what thought is going to keep me up all night now...)

The little old lady did not say "Brains." She didn't say anything at all. She just looked really sad. Then I noticed that the death pamphlet (which is how they announce deaths here, apparently) was stuck on the door opposite of hers. So there is a good chance that the woman who died was a friend of the lil old lady in the stairwell. And even better chance that the woman who died was not, in fact, the little old lady. So she probably wasn't resurrected either. Unless you count the fact that in my mind she was dead, and now she was clearly not.

I wanted to say I was sorry for her loss. I wanted to tell her it would be ok. I wanted to tell her something to make her feel better.

Unfortunately my phrasebook doesn't cover "What to say to comfort the lil old lady in your building when she looks so incredibly sad and lost because someone her neighbor just died."

I think I might have to write a letter to the publisher about this... How can they call it "Lonely Planet" and not have a section like that?