Daddy
Gilles Mainauds spent the last days of his life on a small, remote French island and stated an example that loneliness in elderly age does not have to be a regularity.
Gilles Mainaud passed away a few days after Christmas 2020, aged 82 years. I did this story just few months before his death. The loneliness of older people is a topic that has become even more relevant with COVID-19. In 2018, almost five million French people aged more than 60 years admitted being lonely. In the same year, the government announced a new service which customers pay for postal workers to check on their elderly relatives during morning rounds and report about their condition via an app.
However, growing older does not have to feel lonely. The simple solution is a strong family tie. Ile d’Yeu, an island off the west coast of France and home of Gilles Mainaud, is famous for its beauty and delicious food. Decades ago, the now 87-year-old came to the island together with his wife, Simone. Since her death a few years ago, the pensioner lives alone on the island and enjoys his excellent health condition. Spread over the whole year, the families of his two children surround him. In summer, sometimes more than 15 people share the two houses of his property on the island. They eat, drink and talk all day long or make excursions to the beach. And, of course, take care of beloved Daddy.
