Can a dog die from loneliness?

So, I have this dog. She is the absolute sweetest thing ever. Actually, she's not really mine anymore. She's almost fifteen years old now and lives tied up to a tree on my grandparent's hill. It makes me so mad, because she's been like that for so many years, ever since I was a little girl. See, my dad got her from the pound when she was just a puppy, a little less than a year old. He didn't really want her because she was only a medium sized dog, see, he wanted something the size of a rottweiler, as she was the size of a lab. After we'd had her for about a year, my parents split up. My mom couldn't take her because she's allergic and thought my dad was taking care of her, but he wasn't. My grandparents took her after about four days without food or water. I'm glad they feed her and everything, but a dog needs for than just having food, water, and a doghouse. They need love, too, and my poor dog isn't getting much of that. <|3 I wish I could take care of her, but I only see her once a week.

Of course not! NOTHING can. Nothing needs "love" either...whatever that is.

Yes they can, loneliness can be very stressful for a dog and can cause the animal from not eating, drinking, sleeping etc which leads to death. But death induced by being left alone without attention usually only occurs in dogs with a big pack mentality such as wolf hybrids. But it sounds like this dog isnt getting the care it needs and should be given away for his last few years.

Is she being given enough suitable food and water? Does she always have access to suitable shelter and bedding? Is she being exercised enough? Is she being vaccinated and checked by a fully-trained veterinarian regularly enough? Are your grandparents making sure that she sees a fully-trained veterinarian whenever she is sick or injured? If you answered "no" to one or more of those questions above, an animal cruelty/welfare-related law could be being broken here. I would advise that you contact the RSPCA or your local equivalent and/or your local police about this? If you do contact the police, and the police person whom you speak to refuses to take any positive action for her, tell them that you will report them to the Head Officer unless the dog is rescued and, if there is a crime involved here, those who are responsible are brought to justice. If you don't think that this is that serious, try talking to you grandparents about her. If she has been outside for all that time, it is probably going to be really hard to get her to settle in as a household dog now. However, you could still try and persuade your grandparents to build her a proper pen, make her a suitable shelter, give her some suitable toys and bedding and give her a water bowl and a food bowl. They could then talk to a fully-trained, caring and honest vet or another good dog expert about her and then begin to give her adequate food at the correct times, exercise her enough, give her some love and attention and cater to all of her other needs. Also, if this doesn't work, or you just don't think that they would do this, try doing your research on her breed/type (or, if she is a mixed breed, the breeds/types that you think may be in the mix) and on dogs in general. You may then be able to, eventually, persuade both your parents/carers and your grandparents to let you have her as your dog, even if you do have to keep her outdoors for the rest of her life. If this doesn't work, or you just do not see that happening, I would advise that, unless they start giving her more love and attention, you politely try to convince them to hand her over to a no-kill shelter. Try telling them that is for her own good. Also, please do ask that they make sure that it definitely is a no-kill shelter before they let her go to the shelter as billions of dogs are killed across the world, especially in the USA and eastern countries, simply because they have not been adopted after a period of time. Sisyphus, do you really not know what love is? If so, then you may not have ever had it and I feel so, so sorry for you... Best of luck.