Tony lost his wife in May this year and ever since then has been living all alone, in desperate search of a friend.
There are times when we meet the right one along our journey and they become an equal part of our lives. Many find their own journeys down the road but others stay together until the end. But death is inevitable and when it's a loved one that we lose to sudden demise, we always ask the creator of the world, "Why?"
Sometimes, even before the journey can end, we lose the person we most loved and can't think of a life without them. Suddenly there's an emptiness not just in the surroundings but in our hearts as well. Some people have friends and family to refill their emptiness but some aren't that lucky. Take the man in this story for example.
The 75-year-old Tony Williams' wife passed away in May and since then he has been living an extremely lonely life. The retired physicist is a resident of Alton, East Hampshire, with no children to share his pain with. Ever since his wife, Jo, also 75, passed away he believes he has been "cursed" by loneliness as he spends days without speaking to anyone, reported The Metro.
A pensioner has put up a heart-breaking poster in his window ‘as a last resort’ to make friends after the death of his wife left him completely isolated.https://t.co/YZx39rM4Ik
— Eden Project Communities (@edencommunities) September 14, 2020
In a bid to find a friend he can chat or listen to music with, Tony took out two adverts in the local newspaper but didn't receive any replies. Next, he made friendship business cards that he handed out when he visited the supermarket or went out for walks. Even after all the efforts that he took, he never received a callback. With nothing else left to try, he put up a poster on his window asking for friends.
The poster reads, "I have lost Jo, my lovely wife and soul mate. I have no friends and nobody to talk to. I find the unremitting silence 24 hours a day unbearable torture. Can nobody help me?"
"It's my last resort." he explained and continued, "I've tried everything to make friends, but it feels like nobody wants to talk to me. Not very many people pass my house, but I was hoping it would spread around the community, and someone might reach out."
"Jo was my best friend and we had a lovely life. But now I'm all by myself. My wonderful wife has just died, and I have nobody. All I want is for somebody to see the sign and phone me up. I just want a nice conversation so I'm not sat(sic) in silence all day long." Tony added in a heartbreaking confession.
He often sits by the phone willing it to ring with a friendly voice 'but it never does'.💔
— LADbible (@ladbible) September 14, 2020
Trying to explain why he needs a friend, he said, "I'm not looking for someone to listen to me cry - I just want a normal person who I can chat to! I can talk to anybody about anything. I spend most days just sat(sic) in the house in silence, just waiting for the phone to ring, but it never does."
The couple lived in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, for 25 years but had no children. Talking about how the two of them met in a bar he said, "It was just incredible. It was like I'd known her all my life. She was just so lovely," reported The Daily Mail.
He revealed that they were "soul mates" as they "had no secrets and we could be totally open with each other." According to Tony, the time that they spent together after coming back from their respective jobs and cooking together was the best. "Sometimes we'd spend hours cooking, laughing and listening to music together - it was the highlight of our day," he said.
"Everything was perfect," for Jo and Tony until they moved to Alton last year to be close to Jo's sister Beryl, 73 because that's when she fell ill. It turned out she was suffering from pancreatic cancer and passed away just nine days after the diagnosis.
Tony was by his wife's side as she took her last breath but now he's alone and living in silence. "Now I'm here, completely alone, in the house where my lovely wife spent her dying days. Every time I walk in the room, the first thing I do is look at her photograph," he said.
Tony's neighbors offered the pensioner some help but he said that he's looking for someone his own age. It's not an outlandish wish because it's understandable that he might be looking for a companion who can understand his likes, dislikes, happiness, and pain through their own experiences.
@14thefrog This man needs your @TheAlexSW19 #meetupmondays sadly he’s he’s in Hampshire. It’s breaking my heart. Any pubs you know near him in who might be willing to start one up? Or any of you’re followers around that area who’d call him? https://t.co/Ah3PrCbWYJ
— Nikki Clinton (@Nix291210) September 14, 2020
While divulging how he's not close to his wife's family and his own three siblings who reside a long way from his place, he said, "I just want a friend, and I hope my sign will find someone for me."
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