Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

These touching images show a young Spanish couple sharing lunch with their 76-year-old neighbour from the safety of their apartment doorways amid the COVID lockdown.

Giuliana Cappelletti, an elderly Italian woman living in the city of Villanueva i la Geltru, about one hour from Barcelona, in the eastern Spanish region of Catalonia, suggested to her neighbours that they should find a way of dining together.

Her neighbours Javier and Lucia Bravo, both 35, gladly agreed and they placed a table in the middle of the hallway and tables at the entrances to their homes to keep a safe distance.

Giuliana, who is widowed but has a daughter who lives nearby, told Newsflash: “I suggested to my neighbours that we eat together, but we must respect the quarantine measures.”

She added that her daughter has been suffering with a high fever, but said “it is not coronavirus, it is normal flu. She has been unable to see me recently”.

Giuliana, Javier and Lucia Bravo agreed to cook their favourite dishes using gloves and face masks and placed the food on a table in the middle of the hallway to share.

Lucia told Newsflash that Giuliana cooked lasagne and the couple prepared eggplants and torrijas, a traditional sweet similar to French toast.

According to reports, the young couple has been helping Giuliana during the lockdown. Javier does her shopping while Lucia walks her dog Jack every day.

Lucia said the lunch was a great success and they are planning on repeating it again soon.

Javier and Lucia, both journalists who work from home, have been living in their apartment for 10 years and they said their relationship with Giuliana has “got stronger during the coronavirus crisis”.

Lucia told Newsflash: “We need to make this normal, spending time with neighbours who are alone. It does not cost a lot and it is totally worth it.”

According to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University, Spain has registered 174,060 cases of COVID-19 with 18,255 related deaths.

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