This week, Italian police stumbled across the mummified remains of a 70-year-old woman. Marinella Beretta was found sitting at a table in her home in the city of Prestino (near Lake Como), and authorities say she passed away more than two years ago.

Police feared that high winds would pull down overgrown trees in her yard, so they made a house call and discovered her body. Neighbors reported that they hadn’t seen Beretta in two and a half years, according to CBS News.

Beretta had no living relatives.

“What happened to Marinella Beretta in Como, the forgotten loneliness, hurts our consciences,” Family Minister Elena Bonetti said on Facebook.   “We have a duty, as a community that wants to remain united, to remember her life… no one must be left alone.”

Nearly 40 percent of people over the age of 75 in Italy live alone, according to a 2018 report by the national statistics institute (ISTAT).

The same number also said they had neither relatives nor friends to turn to in the event of an emergency.

The story has received international attention, and Italian officials have pledged to focus on elder outreach to avoid similar cases in the future.

 

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