An elderly man has written a 'missed connections' ad after 42 years that will warm your heart

An advert on the missed connections board of Boston’s Craigslist is circulating around the internet for its touching story of a fleeting romance.

The 'advert' was posted by someone claiming to be an elderly man looking for a woman whom he encountered on one of the darkest days of his life, New Year's Eve 1972.

It's received calls for a Pulitzer in Wired, and to see why, you should really read it for yourself.

The man was considering suicide while walking through the rain in the streets of Boston, due to his involvement as a pilot in bombing Hanoi in the Vietnam war.

I trudged into the rain. I suppose I thought, or rather hoped, that it might wash away the patina of guilt that had coagulated around my heart. It didn't, of course, so I started back to the apartment.

And then I saw you.

You'd taken shelter under the balcony of the Old State House. You were wearing a teal ball gown, which appeared to me both regal and ridiculous. Your brown hair was matted to the right side of your face, and a galaxy of freckles dusted your shoulders. I'd never seen anything so beautiful.

The woman had been crying, having fled an event she attended with her fiancée, whom she did not love.

They shared their stories in Neisner’s Café over pecan pie, and the man felt acceptance from her, and a connection beyond any he had experienced before.

I didn't mention Vietnam, but I got the sense that you could see there was a war waging inside me. Still, your eyes offered no pity, and I loved you for it.

He decided during a trip to the toilet that he should seize the moment and ask his companion to pursue a life with him.

But when he returned to the counter where they were sitting, she was gone, leaving nothing but her memory.

The man, devastated, returned to Neisner’s every day for a year and never saw her again. The abandonment encompassed his self-loathing, and the thought of what had occurred in the restaurant gave him a new distraction from despair.

I'm an old man now, and only recently did I recount this story to someone for the first time, a friend from the VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars]. He suggested I look for you on Facebook. I told him I didn't know anything about Facebook, and all I knew about you was your first name and that you had lived in Boston once. And even if by some miracle I happened upon your profile, I'm not sure I would recognize you. Time is cruel that way.

The man says in the intervening years he has lived a good life, seen the world, loved a good woman and raised a child who grew up to be a good man, all due to the hope this chance encounter gave him.

I have hard days, too. My wife passed four years ago. My son, the year after. I cry a lot. Sometimes from the loneliness, sometimes I don't know why. Sometimes I can still smell the smoke over Hanoi. And then, a few dozen times a year, I'll receive a gift. The sky will glower, and the clouds will hide the sun, and the rain will begin to fall. And I'll remember.

So wherever you've been, wherever you are, and wherever you're going, know this: you're with me still.

To read the full post, visit the Boston Craigslist.

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