95-Year-Old Man Calls Radio Show Saying He's Lonely, Gets Invited to Studio for Coffee
The man said "every day is hell" since his wife with dementia has been away.
— -- A lonely 95-year-old listener of "BBC Radio Solent" has recently "touched the hearts of thousands of listeners," according to the show's host.
The listener, Bill Palmer of Southampton, U.K., called Alex Dyke's show Wednesday morning explaining how "every day is hell" and how he feels "so alone" because his wife -- whom he had married just last year at age 94 -- recently moved into a nursing home due to her dementia and colitis.
The call was made during Dyke's "Love -- later in life" phone-in. Palmer told Dyke that he had actually been friends with his wife Sheila, 85, for over 30 years before they finally got married on June 2, 2014.
Dyke invited Palmer in for coffee, and the show's production team immediately had a cab pick up Palmer to take him to the studio. Palmer sat in and chatted with Dyke for the rest of the show.
"I just sit with my wife and we tell each other we love each other, and that's it," Palmer told Dyke at the studio. "She knows who I am and she often says 'We did get married on the second of June didn't we?' And that's when it hurts."
Palmer added that since his wife's been in the nursing home, he passes time listening to the radio and watching TV. But said he still feels lonely because "unfortunately, when you get old, people don't visit. That's life."
Other listeners then called in to offer support and company to Palmer, though he politely turned down the callers' offers, including lunch, afternoon trips and a ukulele orchestra visit.
"I didn't know such kindness existed," he told one caller.
Dyke said the 95-year-old man has "touched the hearts of thousands of listeners" and that chatting with Palmer was his "nicest moment in 30 years of broadcasting."