Engracia Hidalgo, accompanied by the Madrid regional government's Director for the Elderly, spoke on the art of "learning to grow old and confront new realities and challenges". After thanking Esther Koplowitz for the invitation to speak and the Foundation for building such a wonderful retirement home, Hidalgo shared her "recipe" for embracing old age.

According to Hidalgo, growing old gracefully is a skill best learned while very young, and one which enables you to embrace old age with courage and vitality. She commended the ability shown by today's elderly to adapt quickly and effectively to the new global and technological society that has developed in recent years.

Hidalgo encouraged residents to continue to live each day with enthusiasm and to be generous, a trait which she maintains is the epitome of old age. Her assertion that old age is characterised by selflessness was backed by hard data: over 20% of the more than 150,000 volunteers in Madrid are over 70.

She also commented that the current economic crisis is attributable to a lack of values, and she urged society in general to "listen more to the elderly, because they exemplify the values of excellence and hard work that will resolve the crisis in Spain".

After her lecture, Hidalgo personally greeted every member of the audience and then toured the rest of the home and viewed its modern facilities, accompanied by representatives of the retirement home management company, the Esther Koplowitz Foundation and FCC.