"So many people living in the same building and feeling so alone."

Juana 's story could be the story of many of our grandmothers. She married at seventeen and moved, with her husband, her mother-in-law, and two children, from Andalusia to Catalonia, specifically to Cornellà (Barcelona), where she lives now. After more than sixty years with her life partner, she was widowed and left with three grown children, each with their own families. I ask her, "Have you ever felt lonely in your life?" How could she possibly answer no?

“My children have already moved out, my husband has passed away, and I don’t want to leave my home as long as I can stay here,” she explains, adding something that I’m sure will resonate with us again: “Where would I go? I think I might be in the way, and I don’t want to be.” Juana lives in a neighborhood full of very tall apartment blocks, so at one point in the conversation, she looks out the window and remarks, “Look, so many people living in these tall buildings, and we all feel so alone; I’m alone in my house, if anyone wants to come and chat for a while.”

Juana believes that people used to live more in community, but now "we're all very distant, and that's why we feel lonely." But it was thanks to this community, this caring for one another, that a neighbor told her she could attend the "Accompanying Loneliness" support group she went to. "Apart from that, I don't do anything else. When I get tired of being at home, I go downstairs, walk around for a while, and then come back up," she tells me. But the bond with the group is growing stronger , and now, when she goes for a walk or sits in the square sunbathing, someone occasionally stops and says, "Juana, we'll see each other this Thursday at the group, right?" They've also promised her that one day they'll go see the sea, something she's wanted to do for a long time.