Just as the world feels like it’s kinda falling apart, a story comes along that breaks our hearts that little bit more… but then, thank goodness, has a happy ending for us all to gladly embrace.
The story starts with a humble Gumtree advert posted by a lonely South Australian man named Ray Johnstone.
Now, Ray is a 75-year-old who is a grandfather of 12 (we’re already emotionally invested). And he’s looking for a new buddy to hit the water with after his fishing mate sadly passed away.
He wrote on his ad on Gumtree: “I’m a widowed pensioner who is looking for a fishing mate. My previous mate is now deceased.”
See what we mean?
Then, you read more of the advert – and see the accompanying beautiful pictures he has uploaded of the potential areas his new fishing partner could visit with him – and your heart breaks even further because he just seems so darn sweet.
Ray explains what he wants even further: “What I want is a fishing mate in a similar position to myself who also wants someone to go fishing with I am willing to share all costs eg petrol bait and should you happen to own a boat willing to pay all ramp fees but happy if you are also a land based fisherman.”
Of course he does that adorable grandparent thing where they accidentally write everything in caps lock for a while. Of course.
Look, there’s just no-one in the world we’d rather have had tens of thousands of views on a Gumtree ad in just a couple of weeks.
Especially because all those views paid off – Ray has officially found himself a new fishing partner.
Crying GIF – Find & Share on GIPHY
He told Nine.com.au.: “I have found a fishing partner. Gumtree called me and said the ad went viral”.
He added that he planned to meet up someone “reasonably local” this week.
And there we were, *this* close to packing it all in and starting to fish with Ray ourselves.
