After weeks of isolation, many people are falling prey to loneliness. Guardian readers and experts offer their experience and advice on how to get through this distressing, dislocating time
Two days before Ireland went into lockdown, David’s wife, Maureen, went into a hospice. He stayed there with her for 10 days until she died on 3 April, ending her seven-year illness with the neurodegenerative disorder multiple system atrophy. Two days later, she was taken to a funeral home and cremated; under the lockdown rules, David was unable to attend the ceremony.
“The hearse simply drove down our road and the neighbours all came out to clap for her,” he says over the phone from his home in Kerry, his voice cracking with emotion. “That was how I said goodbye after 48 years of us being together.” David is now living alone, experiencing both isolation and loneliness for the first time in half a century.
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