Posted on 04/01/2009 7:37:33 PM PDT by DirtyHarryY2K
By SEANNA ADCOX – 15 hours ago
SANDY RUN, S.C. (AP) — Mary Sue Merchant died of natural causes in a tightly locked house on 25 acres in this small community, with only a dog for company. Now her small town is reflecting on why no one noticed for 18 months.
Nobody knew the reclusive widow was gone — not even when the house was sold for back taxes while her decomposing body lay inside. Sometime later, the lonely dog died of thirst in the same room.
"We didn't know this lady existed," Sheriff Thomas Summers said.
Only after the 72-year-old woman's body was found last week did it occur to neighbors they hadn't seen her in a while. And some people wonder if they've lost a fundamental connection of small-town life.
"We've lost the community," said the Rev. Neil Flowers, who plans to talk about Merchant on Sunday at Beulah United Methodist Church, a few miles from where Merchant died. "We do our own thing. We lead busy lives. We go and go and go ... and stay within our comfort zone."
By all accounts, Merchant and her husband kept to themselves. They had no children. The sheriff and coroner say one neighbor told them David Merchant was once a prison guard who feared retribution from former inmates — but officials couldn't confirm if he worked for the state.
[snip]
"It's a sad tragedy this lady had absolutely nobody who cared enough to check on her — very sad," the sheriff said.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
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I posted your article.
Maybe the zero will institute a huge, expensive new government program where caring government workers will come buy every SS recipient’s house twice a week and check on them. </sarc>
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do NOT give them ideas
Very sad.
Belong to FD - last few years been on several calls where
relatives/friends haven’t seen elderly person. Police
call us to force entry into house - discovered them
dead in house, usually been dead for several days by then.
Merchant's unpaid property taxes led to her discovery.
When she didn't pay a $234 bill in January 2008, the county mailed delinquency notices to her post office box, which came back as undeliverable. The property, worth about $160,000 according to county records, was sold Dec. 1, 2008, for $20,000, said county administrator Lee Prickett.
The buyer, local real estate agent Thomas Kohn, did not return messages seeking comment.
"We've lost the community," is such an understatment. I don't know what the preachers in this town preach - but the fruit of that tree is not pretty.
How about snatch up the property and declare it a wetland?
I don’t find this particularly sad. The woman was a reclusive, private person who apparently did not seek human contact. Townspeople don’t need to blame themselves for not knowing she was dead. She had probably rebuked their friendly gestures in the past, so they learned not to include her in the community. Who knows why people withdraw from society. At any rate, it was her choice, and dying alone was a consequence of that choice. I do feel bad for the dog, though.
I’m sure I’ll be flamed for being insensitive, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with this community.
In any community of people there are reclusive people that want to live to themselves and not be bothered. She wasn’t a member of the church, so why would the church be expected to notice anything. She apparently didn’t even keep in touch with her own family. She lived on 25 acres of land, so it’s not like her neighbors could smell the coffee brewing in the morning.
The article was written to tug at your heartstrings and make you feel morally outraged, but I’m not biting. I don’t think there is anything fundementally wrong with this small community because someone who chose to be a recluse died and nobody noticed.
She chose to be alone in her own house — would it be less sad if she had been put into a nursing home by busybodies and died there?
The crime here is the seizure and sale of her property. Preach about the immorality of that.
Sad.
The more news you hear from the south, the easier I see it was for Southern writers (Faulkner, etc.) to write. They had more material around them than they could have used in two life times.
Well thats obvious.
Joining a church and participating at least in its services and perhaps in its activities is a great way to make it very, very likely that members of the congregation keep track of your welfare, if you are handicapped or as you age. I know that this is very true in our church.
Our Pastor and our Christian Care Board, plus individual members of our congregation on their own, keep tabs on our elderly members. Our Pastor takes communion to homebound members on a weekly basis unless he has a very busy week scheduled. Members of our church bring handicapped and elderly members to church usually every week and also are available to drive people to the doctor or for shopping. And you don't need to have been perfectly faithful by any means to receive these services.
I wouldn't necessarily to blame the church(es)in this small town for this sad event. If this poor woman had indicated a need of any sort to a church, I would bet that she would have had help.
Condolences to any remaining family and friends of Mary Sue Merchant and her best friend.
Good opportunity to plug CONTACT, a nation-wide telephone hotline that could always use caring volunteers. Part of their mission is outreach to seniors living alone, just a call a day to make sure they’re OK, taking their meds, eating properly, etc. A small thing, but it makes a huge difference. Consider volunteering.
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