n, a 12-hour drive away), and Katrina, a local girl who helps with the housekeeping. Nevertheless, she is part of the larger community of New Bethesda, if only because she still lives within the town limits and remains within the consciousness of her neighbors. P. Fellin (1995, Defining Communities) observes that locality-based communities are defined as much by geography as by social interaction (p. 4). Although Miss Helen has little direct contact with most of the others living near her, she is nonetheless as aware of the details of their lives as they are of hers. She is able to give Elsa gossip about people with whom she has not spoken directly in years. Marius and Katrina serve as a two-way line of communication, maintaining Miss Helen's membership in the wider system outside her gates.
In her physical isolation, Miss Helen is typical of many older women living alone, as Fellin (1995, Defining Communities) points out (pp. 13-14). Her separation is, in some ways, self-imposed, but she is also restricted by transportation limitations and the limited resourc
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