Mario was 82 years old and had some physical limitations. To get around he needed the support of a walker and some help going to the bathroom. He had a decent retirement income after 40 years of work. He had also obtained recognition of the carer's allowance and lived in a council house that had been assigned to him when he was still young and his son was only 15 years old.

Adalgisa had worked in cabarets since the age of 20. She liked singing, dancing and she boasted to everyone that she too had met actors who later became famous. Everyone complimented her because she had a beautiful voice and a physique, which as she herself said: "not for nothing but I made everyone's heads turn". She was very sought after in her clothing and she always said that, once the war was over, she was finally able to start buying new clothes and following the fashions of the time.

Fulvio is 79 years old, he worked as an engineer, he designed elevators. He has been working in Switzerland and Holland. Subsequently he became manager of a company in La Spezia and when it took on contracts in Rome he willingly moved to the capital.

Giovanni is almost 90 years old and has a very clear mind. In particular, he has one thing clear: that he doesn't want to go to institute. He repeated it to everyone also to always repeat it to himself. The future certainly worried him. He was in good health but he had no relatives, only a kind neighbor who did his shopping and other errands. And that he always rewarded. His house was very well organized but on the third floor without a lift it had become difficult for him to go out. One day a small hole in the backyard was fatal to him. He fell and fractured his femur.

As often happened to unmarried women of the past and despite the malicious judgments that surrounded them, Maria, now 88 years old, was a strong, independent and resolute woman. And she still is, despite her advanced age and the many vicissitudes that she has had to go through. She has always lived alone, but this has not stopped her from having a very satisfying social and professional life. A cultured, studious woman, as soon as she finished high school, she had enrolled in a typing course in order to start working as soon as possible and support herself independently. These were certainly not times of great opportunities, then, for women who wanted to embark on a brilliant professional career. And so, still young, having completed her training, she was hired by the Christian Democrats, where she soon made her mark. She met Aldo Moro and entered his secretariat, where she remained for a long time. Her life was very active and very full of satisfaction. She bought herself a beautiful…

Aurelia is 85 years old and for 5 years she has lived in a retirement home in the center of a populous neighborhood of Rome. She has a very rich relationship life. Every day she goes to visit her friends, she goes around the shops and has long conversations with the traders in the area who know her, she goes to her doctor for advice who has also become a trusted person. The pandemic arrives and the doors of the institute close: she can no longer leave. Even when the period of greater restrictions on the movement of people has passed, it is not possible to leave the institute. Anyone who leaves can no longer return. Aurelia feels oppressed by this situation but she is aware of the emergency that the whole world is experiencing and of the tragedy that has overwhelmed the lives of many. She complains a little but she tries to resist waiting to see the end of this terrible epidemic. But with the new wave of the pandemic, the virus also entered the retirement home where she lived: almost…

Marisa and Antonio were a close-knit couple. A long and overall happy marriage, although with the regret of not having had children. Retirement and old age had increased the hours spent together. The affection was the same as always and they kept each other a lot of company. Every now and then they told each other that they were lucky because they were not alone and loneliness is so bad when you are weak and no longer young.

Many years ago, a passionate letter-appeal from an elderly woman hospitalized in an institution was published in numerous national and local newspapers which seems to summarize the meaning and purposes of the document well. It seems significant to us to place it at the conclusion of this work of ours due to its expressiveness and clarity.