For more than twenty years, the woman on the eighth floor was barely noticeable in our building. She never smiled. She never greeted anyone.

She moved as if weighed down by invisible burdens—head bowed, shoulders tight, eyes fixed on the floor. To everyone, she was simply “the quiet lady upstairs.” Not unfriendly. Not harsh. Just unreachable.

When she passed away last month, I barely gave it a thought. We had never spoken beyond a nod. So, when two officers appeared at my door the next morning asking, “Are you her emergency contact?” I assumed there had been a mistake.

“Me?” I said, bewildered. “For her?”

One nodded. “She listed you as her only contact.”

I was stunned. I wasn’t family. I wasn’t even a friend. I was a stranger. But they needed someone to enter her apartment, sort through her possessions, and handle some paperwork. I agreed.