To avoid a lonely Christmas, the elderly widower posted a hand-written advert on his local Berlin supermarket's noticeboard, asking if anyone had a spare seat at their table on the big day, reports the Stuttgarter Nachrichten (SN).
“Where can a lonely pensioner and widower find a place in a small group for Christmas,” the note asked.
His plea was noticed by 27-year-old civil servant, Lisa, who posted a picture of it on Facebook. Since then, the post has been shared nearly 6,000 times and the man received hundreds of invitations from strangers to eat with them on Christmas day.
“I never expected that there would be so many [responses],” 27-year old Lisa told the SN. “After a certain point, I couldn’t keep up with it anymore.”
The man was “very touched and was pleased that so many people responded”, says Lisa, but, for now, has put the matter on hold, after all, it's still more than a month until Christmas.