[mercer]

If my experience with 'southern' cultures is anything to go by, the amount of interaction between young and old people probably plays a huge role.

For comparison, I live in NL and for me and the vast majority of my 20-30-something friends, visiting grandparents is relatively rare. For many of us even visiting parents is a 'once every x months' kind of thing.

On the other hand, when I lived around the mediterranean, not only was it expected to regularly interact with parents and grandparents, but it was often the case that they lived together, or at least close by.

Perhaps the 'quarantining'/neglect of the elderly in Northern-Europe that I've often criticised as inhumane is actually saving them in this particular situation.