Great

Pensioner places
heartbreaking
newspaper advert to
avoid spending his
tenth Christmas
alone Retired butler James Gray was
overwhelmed by the response after he
placed a newspaper ad hoping to end a
decade of lonely Christmases A pensioner placed a heartbreaking advert
in a newspaper in a bid to end a decade of
spending Christmas Day alone. James Gray, an 85-year-old retired butler,
has no immediate family and usually has a lonely lunch on his own in his London Flat. He told the Irish Post the last time he saw anyone on Christmas Day was "when I saw
my accountant about 10 years ago." But a few weeks ago he hatched a
desperate plan to end his decade of festive loneliness, planning a Christmas lunch at a
local hotel and placing an advert inviting
pensioners to join him. "Pensioners group in the Sutton area will be
celebrating Christmas Day together with a
lovely Christmas lunch at The Holiday Inn
Hotel, Sutton," it said. "For more information please call James on
xxxx. Come join us!" But James was left downhearted when only
one person replied - and that person soon
pulled out saying they had decided to go
somewhere else on December 25th. But after the paper published details of his
heartbreaking story, he was inundated with
calls from people offering to have lunch with
him over the holiday. He's even looking forward to getting his first
Christmas cards in years, after the
newspaper set up an appeal to collect cards
for him. Thousands of readers who were touched by
his story sent messages of support. James told the Irish Post , "It is so touching to me, after all these years alone, to see this
response from people. I'm so appreciative of
the offers. I should have done this years
ago."