Posted by ZenCanadian
No, it's a matter of someone thinking it was a good idea to contact the person linked to the property.
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I wasn't going to comment on this thread, but I shall. It will be my
only comment on this property and then you can all go back to your finger pointing until the thread is either locked or people get tired of arguing.
Of the critics who've posted to this thread, one had previously contacted me and suggested that I immediately contact the owner to have the place 'sealed up' before it made its way to other social media. Another UER member on this thread contacted me and asked if I'd inquire with the property owner about their interest in purchasing a piece of equipment inside the house.
As Darkman has mentioned, many photos were posted to social media and clues from the photos allowed others to find the house. It was a community error as far as I'm concerned with exterior photos and the name of the town shown. I will say that it took me all of 15 minutes to find this place by contacting one person with a photo of the outside of the house provided by one of the critics. 15 minutes! Another explorer who will remain nameless kindly confirmed my suspicions. I told not a soul where it was, as it began spreading to other people's social media.
And finally, what you might consider a 'dick move' at contacting a 76-year old woman who probably has no more than eight years left on this planet, I consider an act of kindness. Her entire childhood is in that house along with every single memory of her mother. The mother had willed everything to the church which left the daughter excluded.
The choices were:
A) Do nothing, allow the contents of the house to collapse into the basement and make the house not only unexplorable but to totally destroy all possessions of this family and leave this elderly woman with nothing. Explorers would remain happy at being able to pour over the possessions of her mother.
b) Contact the woman, say nothing of having actually been in the house but alert her to the gaping hole in the roof and inevitable collapse of the floor.
The woman sounding traumatized as it turns out, she was not sure how to deal with the situation when I had called. She lives with a 90 year old man whom she takes care of and was tending to when I called. She was finally able to reach an arrangement with the church to retrieve some of her childhood belongings as well as some items of her mother. The house itself, which is absolutely beautiful will be fixed so that no further decay occurs.
I'm not going to apologize at all for my actions. It's amazing that for a hobby that involves looking back at people's lives and documenting them, how selfish some people can be. Their own immediate need to rush in with a camera surpasses allowing a 76-year old woman who has to take care of a bedridden man in return for a place to live, some childhood memories and her mother's memories.
Maybe this will have cost me the trust of a few select people, but in the end sometimes you have to remember that these places belong to people and we're just voyeurs.
Now wouldn't it be ironic, very ironic, if I told you that the sealing of the house came only after she was contacted by a neighbor who had seen the photos NOT on Jerm's blog, not on my Facebook page or website but by an exterior photo posted by one of those criticizing on this thread.
Darkman's spelling and personal habits do not negate whatsoever the point he was making - every one of us led to the inevitable closure of this property by sharing the beauty of this house with others. The only way to have kept it untouched for another 30 years would have been to not tell a soul, not share a single photo.
I know deep down on some level every one of you can connect with what I did and if you want to hold me accountable for the inevitable sealing up, do so with my blessings. Some of you encouraged me to contact the owner, I won't for a second have any doubt that the right decision was made though. I made it quite public a few months back that I'd spoken to the daughter.
If you want to carry around a sack of big old butthurt because you are now denied entry into this house, and a 76 year old woman is happy, and you feel this was my fault, by all means do so. Your misery will be my pleasure. Maybe the house will be open again, maybe not. The important thing is that for the final years of this woman's life she has these memories. As I see it anyway.
Now then, back to arguing, finger pointing, blaming, being nasty to one another... I've said my piece and I won't be checking back for replies.
