Giuseppe Giordano doesn’t go to the sea alone.
He is 70 years old, and every morning he sits facing Gaeta beach, in Italy, with a frame in his hands. Inside is a portrait of Ida, his late wife. He met her when he was 16 and she was 17. They married in 1969, against their parents’ wishes, at a time when having a child out of wedlock was still a scandal.
They lived a long, peaceful life, until Ida fell ill and died in 2011. Since then, he has returned to that spot because, as he told Giorgio Moffa, the owner of the restaurant across from where he sits, they shared many happy moments there, on a nearby beach where they were each other’s first love. Moffa photographed him and uploaded the image to Facebook on July 1, 2018.
The photo went viral in Italy, and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini responded with three hearts. Giuseppe, however, isn’t looking for likes: he simply can’t bear to look at the sea without her.