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.
We have three elderly people we look after, one of them goes with us to dialysis. Hubby fixes meals or sandwich fixings for them, helps the older gentleman who goes to dialysis to get in and out of the van, goes to his house in the middle of the night to pick him up off the floor because he can’t get up, and just makes sure everything is okay with them. We also visit nursing homes. Most of the older folks in our church who were in nursing homes have now passed away. They’re just as neglected as those living by themselves sometimes.
Years ago people would sit on their porches and talk to eachother or to passers-by. Now nobody does so you don’t see people like you used to.