It was not until Bernadette Carroll saw a small, easily overlooked newspaper clipping that she was awakened to the suffering of her own family.
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"My first cousin passed away and his funeral was actually last week," said Ms Carroll.
"In the newspaper, there was his funeral notice and I had not realised until I saw it that all of his siblings and their wives, and most of his other cousins when they were listed there it just said, 'deceased, deceased, deceased'.
"I just thought, oh my, they are all gone and he was alone."
Working as the Riverina Murray regional manager of Relationships Australia, Ms Carroll comes face-to-face with personal struggles each and every day.
But it was not until then that she saw how loneliness permeates a person's life, becoming the companion of even the most social.
Just a personal moment could save someone from the crippling experience of loneliness.
Perhaps, just a knock on the door could have saved Elsie Brown's dignity too.
In March 2003, Mrs Brown's body was discovered in a home near central Victoria.
Unopened mail on her living room floor revealed she had died 23 months before being found.
The story has become something of familiarity in Wagga, where in April 2018 history repeated.
Another body - that of 77-year-old John Ash - was found inside an Ashmont home.
He had been there more than a month before a real estate agent made the grizzly discovery.
"It is an extreme example, and thankfully it doesn't happen too often, but that it happens at all is alarming," said Althea Brunskill, acting head of early intervention at Relationships Australia.
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Upon the initial discovery in Victoria, neighbours spoke of Elsie Brown's reclusive behaviour.
She was deeply private and personal and had managed to shut the world out so much, her absence was no longer noticed.
But Wagga's John Ash was a different sought.
An active member of The Rules Bowling Club, he was described as one who was "always there to help".
Nevertheless, Mr Ash disappeared for more than four weeks before his absence was felt.
In a lot of cases, the isolation is beyond a person's control, said Ms Brunskill.
"I know it's something my mother is dealing with. She is elderly and finding that all of her friends are passing away," said Ms Brunskill.
"She is living longer than her contemporaries, and that is painful."
Falling each year on the last weekend of March, Neighbour Day earmarks the calendar between the anniversaries of these gruesome discoveries.
"The message we're aiming to get across is that, if you haven't seen your neighbour lately, make contact," said Ms Carroll.
"The context of what is your neighbour changes, it could be who you're living next to, who you work with, or really even a complete stranger."
The staff at the office of Relationships Australia invited their Gurwood Street neighbours from Mission Australia to join a morning tea on Thursday, to herald the annual Neighbour Day observance.
This year, the theme for the March 31 event is 'loneliness'.
Typically seen as the condition of the elderly, research conducted by Relationships Australia suggest it is increasingly punctuating young lives.
"I would say that loneliness is across the board," said Ms Carroll.
"In cities, you might live close to your neighbours but you never get to know them.
"In regional and rural areas, geographic isolation can contribute to a feeling of loneliness, especially during a drought.
"Rural communities tend to do connecting better on the whole, but when the whole community is suffering, it takes a lot of energy to get out and check on everyone.
"But it really is just so important to get out there and ask the question, 'are you alright'?"