LIFE MATTERS MEDIA STAFF

When police in Rome, Italy, heard reports of someone crying they may have expected to find a crime. What they found was something heartbreaking.

Police were called to the Appio area of the city after someone reported hearing crying and shouting in an apartment complex last Tuesday. When officers arrived, they found 89-year-old Jole and her 94-year-old husband, Michele, alone in their small flat.

The couple wasn’t injured. They were watching TV news when they started to cry about the state of the world, Roman police report on their Facebook page.

The couple – married for nearly 70 years – told officers they felt lonely because no one had visited them in years. Police said the kitchen table had old grapes and no proper food.

As officers waited for an ambulance to check on them, they decided to prepare them a spaghetti dinner. One officer cooked the pasta while the others sat down for a chat.

“They ask for permission to access the pantry,” the post reads. “Improvise a little dinner. A bowl of pasta with butter and cheese. Nothing special.”

Their act of kindness soon went viral, sparking warm headlines across the globe. The original Facebook post has garnered more than 65,000 reactions and thousands of shares.

Police find lonely elderly couple crying, make them spaghetti dinner https://t.co/Erk7C2AAKU #PowerOfHumanity via @goodnews — Matt W. Cody (@MattWCody) August 9, 2016

Hear someone crying? Make them spaghetti. Good way of going through life. https://t.co/MhWmE1VDnl — tannaz (@tannazie) August 8, 2016

Be the Good: Police in Rome make spaghetti dinner for lonely elderly couple. https://t.co/xaEd4tTQdR via @goodnews pic.twitter.com/zxl7idxn5C — Hallmark Business (@HallmarkBiz) August 8, 2016