Can a $9 Lunch Cure Loneliness?
Published by Oprah Daily in August 2024. Artwork by ShinYeon Moon.
In Portland, Oregon, a Japanese meal program for seniors nourishes the elderly—and the volunteers serving them.
Last fall, my mom and I traveled to the Philippines to coordinate care for my aunt Dolores. The eldest of eight siblings, Dolores made a conscious decision to never have children—she felt she’d already raised enough. Dolores is my mother’s only sibling who lives in the Philippines, one of the two countries she grew up in. After the death of her second husband, Larry, two years ago, she found herself alone. She stayed in their apartment in Manila. Thanks to Larry’s pension, she can afford a full-time caregiver—a true boon for her because she has dementia. Before he died, Larry bragged that Dolores “lives in the present,” as if she’d reached an admirable Zen apex. But despite his loving tone, he shared this out of fear.
