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Good morning, My neighbour J lost her husband at the start of the year. They had been together for 54 years and though they knew his death was coming, she told me that when death comes - you can never really be prepared for it. It’s hard for me to imagine how devastating the loss of a partner of so many decades can be - even in normal times. But J told me about the overwhelming sense of loneliness she felt as lockdown restrictions exacerbated her sense of isolation. Like many of us - she was unable to visit her family at a time when she most needed their company. At the start of lockdown - as my toddler and I posted invites to a street whatsapp group - we had no idea what to expect. To be honest - before the pandemic, I rarely thought much about my neighbours. In a sense we were just that – people who happened to live on the same street. But J told me that this connection to neighbours was a lifeline for her. In the past few months, we have clapped for carers together and shared possessions we no longer needed. We’ve co-ordinated shopping trips and cheered each other on during dark days. We’ve found hope in rainbows. The nation is in the middle of a crisis of loneliness. A study out this week from the Office for National Statistics found that more people are feeling lonely than at any point during the coronavirus pandemic. For many, the isolation is suffocating. I was moved to tears listening to this programme on Wednesday and hearing how 86-year-old Ron Davies from Walsall had managed to beat loneliness after his wife died - by becoming a voluntary befriender. Something in us desperately craves connection with others. In the oral cultures of southern Africa, there has long existed this concept of Ubuntu – a term that took on new meaning during the transition out of apartheid. At its heart, Ubuntu says “I am because you are”. This belief that a person is a person through other people has resonance not just with the African values I grew up with - of community and kinship. But Archbishop Desmond Tutu linked it to the Christian theological belief that each of us is made in God’s image and it is that family resemblance that sparks something in us when we connect with each other. Perhaps this sense of togetherness is the perfect antidote to loneliness.