To the editor:

In the sixty seconds it takes to carry a shopper’s groceries to their car from our local food bank, I learn plenty.

“My back is going out. It’s been a day,” the woman offered while I slid her box of produce into her trunk.

“If you don’t mind, what do you do?” I asked. “I am a home health aide. Hospice.” I could see her twisting her spinal column while lifting her patient.

“Your work is so important,” I said.

I wondered whether our community’s hospice home health aides — offering comfort to people making life’s final passage — feel seen?

In his book “How to Know a Person,” David Brooks argues that being seen by others is a fundamental human need. The Zulu people of South Africa get it. When they greet each other, they say, Sawubona, which means “I see you.” When we take the time to really see each other, we not only “light up” the other person, we “light up” something deep within ourselves.

Sadly, we are living in a time of a loneliness epidemic. Six in 10 adult Americans report feeling lonely. I notice folks — including myself — with their heads buried in their phones.

In the second before I turned to walk back into the food pantry, the woman looked me in the eye. Her “thank you” seemed directed less at my help with her groceries and more at feeling seen. Her message? Life goes fast. Take time to see all those you meet for real.

Peter Luckey,

Lawrence