Four police officers in Rome, Italy were utterly heartbroken when they responded to a noise complaint. When they arrived at the small apartment, they found an emotionally distraught elderly couple who admitted they had been crying from sheer loneliness. It had been years since anyone had visited them. 84-year-old Jole told the officers that she and her 94-year-old husband Michele had been “suffocating with only a television to keep them company.”
The couple, who have been married for almost 70 years, reached an emotional peak while watching the news. “Why there was so much hate in the news that day?” Jole asked the officers. The first responders noticed that the couple’s house was almost completely devoid of food with the exception of a few drying grapes. They called paramedics to check on their health and one of the officers cooked them a simple meal of spaghetti with butter and parmesan.
While the lonely couple ate, another officer sat with them and talked. After he learned their story, he reached out through social media to share their story on Facebook. His post was quickly filled with hundreds of people offering to visit the couple at least a few days every week.
