This is genuinely heartbreaking
Valentine’s tends to get a bad rep these days, but an elderly man has managed to prove that to some people, the date still means something.
Chasidy Gwaltney, from Corpus Christi, Texas, was out for lunch when she spotted a man sitting alone on Valentine’s Day – opposite an urn of his wife’s ashes.
The man appears to be continuing a tradition of wining and dining his wife, writing a card and pouring out a glass, even after her death – and it has triggered a huge emotional outpouring on Facebook as hundreds of thousands of people have shared the image and tagged a loved one.
The moment captured is of the man holding his head in his hands, handkerchief pressed to his face, quietly taking a moment to gather himself in the restaurant.
It’s easy to imagine most people not even looking twice at the scene had it happened opposite them, perhaps making it all the more moving to those previously unaffected by the holiday.
Gwaltney captioned her post with a powerful message on love and loss, encouraging others to not take their loved ones for granted.
It appears this simple photo of one man’s staggering commitment to his wife is the timely reminder many of us needed to spread the love, this year at least.
