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As a representative of families on the Council for Social Life (CVS) of an Ehpad (Nursing Home for Dependent Elderly Persons), I propose a case study that uses feedback on the COVID-19 crisis in the home, which was put under temporary administration at the beginning of April 2020. The Ehpad Piano operated in a downgraded mode prior to the pandemic, without any health care framework. But neither the management of Piano nor the supervisory authorities (the Regional Health Agency and Departmental Council) heeded the repeated alerts that came from the families’ representatives. The realization of the human catastrophe that unfolded at Piano during lockdown and the isolation of its residents are inscribed in the torments of abandonment, silence, and the impossibility for loved ones to grieve, as expressed in their emails. The home’s failures call into question how families are seen by homes, but also, within the Ehpad framework, the role of the CVS, an advisory body, and the place of the families. The latter, almost always eager to help despite having put their parents in a home, discovered, often in an abrupt manner, that they had a role to play within the home itself: that of watching over the welfare of their parents. Their place must urgently be reconsidered in a framework that goes beyond exclusive verticality.