Italian Police Cook Spaghetti for Lonely Couple

A heaping plate of pasta can be very comforting. That’s why policemen in Rome recently cooked two plates of spaghetti for a yelling elderly couple, instead of settling the public disturbance by force, the Associated Press reports.

Last week, police say, during one hot evening, they received reports that a 94-year-old man, Michele, and his 89-year-old wife, Jole, were loudly crying and shouting. The pair, who had been married for nearly 70 years, reportedly grew upset after watching a distressing TV news program, The Sun reports. They were also forlorn that their neighbors were on vacation and nobody had visited in a while.

Four officers arrived on scene—but they quickly realized that the couple was just “two lonely souls who need reassuring,” the police later wrote in a Facebook post, published on Wednesday, August 3. To cheer the elderly pair up, the police cooked them a meal: spaghetti with butter, cheese, plus a "precious ingredient — all their humanity," the police statement said. They also called an ambulance to make sure that Michele and Jolie were in good health.

Authorities offered their own introspective take on the event: "Life is not always easy, especially when the city empties and the neighbors are away on holiday,” they wrote in their Facebook statement, as translated by CNN. “Sometimes loneliness dissolves into tears. Sometimes it's like a summer storm, it suddenly overwhelms you."

In this instance, the couple's heartache passed with a little kindness—and a lot of spaghetti.