Sorry @Lyn, but your ex-neighbour has my sympathy. Having lived next door to neighbours from hell and almost having a nervous breakdown because of them, I do tend to sympathise very strongly now with people who have 'mental health issues'. Poor woman - her worst fears being realized. Wonder what happened...........
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
At our previous house I came home to find not only all of the hedging between us cut down, but ripped out from the roots with a tractor. She also did this to the neighbours on the other side of her, so all 3 gardens were completely exposed.
We put up a fence and she undermined it on her side until the posts were exposed, then we had to shore it up on our side. She was a bit funny, should have been on medication but thought everyone was just trying to poison her. She was petrified of dogs, policeman and hedging, we sold to a couple who had 3 Newfoundland’s, absolutely huge, and he was a policeman.
Lyn, I have endured clinical depression for the last 22 of my 66 years, and I can assure you that mental illness is not a bit "funny". The fact that your poor neighbour was probably in no actual danger doesn't make her fear, and consequent suffering, any less real. I believe police officers nowadays receive training in how to deal sensitively with the mentally ill, so I hope she now has a more compassionate neighbour than you seem to be. Your anger at having your boundaries trashed is perfectly reasonable, and for that you have my sympathy. But sanity, once lost, is less easily replaced than a hedge. I hope you never have to suffer something as awful as having your worst fears living next door to you.
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