I think, perhaps, that can be a difficult one to answer. Loneliness is an interior state that is not immediately apparent by others. I think some were. It is a type of cross. Jesus was lonely, I think, in the garden, during his passion when his disciples fell asleep when he asked them to watch with him.
I believe that God allowed little Jacinta Marto to be lonely at the time of her death. She died completely alone in a hospital with no one to comfort her.
On 2nd February, Jacinta was finally admitted to the Estfania hospital where she was lonely and unhappy. On 10th February two of her ribs were removed under local anaesthetic. Although the daily dressing of the wound caused her agony she never complained. She told the lady in charge of the orphanage when she visited her that Our Lady had appeared and promised to fetch her soon and that her pain would stop. It did. On the evening of 20th February, 1920, she asked to receive the Last Rites. A priest heard her confession and promised to bring her Communion next morning, but Jacinta died peacefully that night. Alone. She was almost eleven.
Visitors who saw Jacinta in her open coffin exclaimed that she seemed to be alive, with the loveliest colour. The unpleasant odour due to her illness was replaced by ‘a fragrance as of the most delicious flowers’.
