She spends entire mornings swimming by herself at the municipal pool in the working-class neighborhood of Carabanchel (Madrid), because entrance is just €1.50. On other days, she goes to the public library to sit down at a computer and check her Facebook account.

On sunny days he cares for the plants on his balcony and carefully prepares delicious meals for one inside his kitchen. Sometimes he realizes that he hasn’t been outside the house for days.

She never got married or had children, her parents passed away, and she gradually lost all contact with her siblings.

He is divorced, has no children, and his relatives live 10,000 km away in his native Argentina, which he left 21 years ago.

Conchi Rico and Gustavo Ferrarese both happen to be 53 years old. But there are many things that divide them.

She is a nursing assistant who never held a steady job and went “truly hungry” before being accepted at a soup kitchen.

He is a former executive for a ceramics multinational who used to be very well off; a music buff, he was a member of the Valencia Philharmonic Association, and held a season pass to the Palau concert hall.

Loneliness came to them through unemployment. As they soon found out, joblessness gradually drives your friends away: people call less and less often because what’s the point, if you’re going to reject their invitation for lack of money? When you can’t afford to go out for a cup of coffee, you start losing your relations.

Conchi has been out of a job since August of last year and is collecting a monthly check of €375 “with no extra pay.” Gustavo has been unemployed for the last six years and has used up his last subsidy. Now he is waiting for a year to elapse before he becomes newly eligible for a monthly stipend of €426.

“Loneliness really weighs down on you, it’s like the walls are closing in on you,” says Conchi, who doesn’t know whether she’ll have someone to celebrate her birthday with this coming December.

“You feel lonely when you fix a very nice meal and then eat it all by yourself. Or when the jasmine is in bloom on the balcony and none of your friends have come to see it in two weeks,” says Gustavo.

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El País