Who is William Lashua, you ask? Only the most popular 90 year old on the internet at the moment. (No, Betty White’s not quite that old yet.)
The internet is rallied
See, Saturday is William’s birthday. Someone came across a poster asking people to come to his birthday party, giving the impression that he may not have a lot of friends or family around to help him celebrate. A photo of the poster was uploaded online and, well, the internet set out to make sure this birthday would go down in infamy.
People began sending cards (including some of us from this office — see below), flowers and presents (like these 23 packages of beef jerky from Bridgeford) — even making plans to show up in person. Someone set up a William Lashua birthday Facebook page and there are YouTube videos like this one (some lyrics NSFW).
His family then caught wind of this, and his grandson started making the rounds online trying to dissuade people from actually coming to the party, saying Mr. Lashua was, in fact, not a lonely old man at all:
He has 7 children, many grandchildren, and even great grandchildren. In his younger years he was a foster parent to dozens of foster children. He is well liked in the community, and will be fully supported on his 90th birthday. I ask that if you don’t know him, to not attend the party, as it is for his friends and family. The venue for the party is a very small hall, and will be full to capacity with people he knows and loves.
By all means, send cards and well wishes, but please refrain from sending gifts/strippers/cakes/candies/etc. and instead please make a donation in his name to a local vetrans [sic] charity.
As for the beef jerky:
The jerky will most certainly be appreciated, I know I keep saying in many threads that he… doesn’t have any teeth… but really, I’m sure he’ll figure something out to eat the jerky.
It was amazing to see how much momentum this got and how quickly things can happen online if something takes hold. Whether William Lashua is a lonely old man or not, it’s still pretty neat that he’s going to be getting birthday wishes from thousands of people he doesn’t know via a technology he doesn’t really understand.
We’re just thankful he has a savvy grandson who will be there to open and screen the presents.
Our card for William Lashua
We even sent him a fake moustache