After his wife’s death, Tony Williams found himself alone, with no one to talk to.

• The 75-year-old lost his wife Jo Williams in May this year.
• Now, the elderly man has put up a sign on his window, asking for someone to talk to.
• In addition to the poster, he has also paid for ads in his local newspaper and has printed out business cards.
• Williams: “I just want a friend, and I hope my sign will find someone for me.”

Williams has put up a poster, asking for friends or just someone to talk to.

The sign reads: “I have lost Jo. My lovely wife and soul mate. I have no friends or family. No one to talk to. I find the unremitting silence 24 hours a day unbearable torture. Can no one help me?”. Williams finds himself lonely and all alone after his wife, best friend, and soulmate passed away in May. Having been unable to have children, the couple had lived without much family around and now that Williams has lost Jo, he has no one. According to Metro, Williams now sits by the phone, hoping it will ring, but ‘it never does’. It is this intense loneliness that drove him to not only put up this poster but to also pay £120 for two adverts in his local newspaper. Determined to meet someone to talk to, Williams had even made business cards which he handed out at local supermarkets and on walks. Despite his efforts, no one called and no one showed. 

Williams explained that he is not looking for someone to cry or complain to.

UNILAD writes that the elderly man is not looking for someone to listen to him cry. Instead, he just wants a normal person with who he can have a conversation: “I can talk to anybody about anything”.

It’s my last resort. 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 in silence all day long.

Tony Williams

His marriage to soulmate Jo had been of ‘perfect harmony’.

Tony and Jo Williams had met in a bar when they were 35 and according to Metro, it had felt as though they had known each other their whole lives. Williams explained that their relationship had felt natural and that their marriage had been of perfect harmony. For 25 years, the couple had lived in Kempley, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire but had decided to move close to Alton, East Hampshire last year so that Jo could be closer to her sister. However, only shortly after their move, Jo had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had passed away.

 We both used to get in every evening from work and cook together – with me doing one job and her another – then we’d put it together at the end. Sometimes we’d spend hours cooking, laughing and listening to music together – it was the highlight of our day. […] We also had a huge, beautiful garden with an orchard. In the summer months, I’d do the gardening and Jo would come and sit outside with me. Everything was just perfect.

Tony Williams

Williams is one of more than 2 million elderly people who live alone and feel intense loneliness.

This profound loneliness is felt by millions of people throughout the United Kingdom. According to Age UK’s statistics on people in later life in the UK:

• 3.8 million individuals over the age of 65 live alone, 58% of whom are over 75 (around 2.2
  million individuals).
• 49% of older people (equivalent to over 5 million individuals) say the television or pets are their main
  form of company.
• 17% of older people report they are in contact with family, friends and neighbours less than once a
  week; 11% report this contact is as infrequent as less than once a month.

This data is heartbreaking and it urges people to notice the pain, loneliness, and anguish of the elderly around them.