Michael Walsh – Free As Birds Social Group Welcomes New Friends

A Social Group inspired by a moving chance encounter

A poignant incident at a busy restaurant prompted Michael Walsh to create a friendly and welcoming social group offering shared lunches and get-togethers for the unattached.

“Whilst dining I spotted a man sitting wistfully on his own. Pausing to say hello, I learnt that after contracting cancer the neatly dressed gentleman’s wife had passed away a year earlier; he had no family to speak of.”

This touching incident reminded the writer of the loneliest night he ever experienced. His peak period business trip included a free night in crowded Marbella. Denied a restaurant table better suited to high-spending couples and groups, he couldn’t get near the bars either for bantering friends. “I was invisible, an unwanted pariah.”

As a consequence of covid and cancer, other ailments and advancing age many people lack companionship. It is estimated that single people make up 40 per cent of the UK population. Here on the Spanish Riviera, this figure is likely higher – and growing.

What to do? Michael says: “FAB – an acronym for Free as Birds – would offer companionship through informal lunches or dinners; barbaques and poolside parties giving an opportunity for the unattached to meet up, form new friendships; lift the spirits and give purpose to ‘life after death.”

‘A stranger’s just a friend you’ve yet to meet’. FAB focuses on towns and urbanisations within 10 km of Torrevieja. Michael can be contacted at 662 067 490 or by email at keyboardcosmetics@gmail.com

Mícheál Walsh

https://writingservicesandtranslations.wordpress.com/

Telephone 0034 662 067 490 /  0034 603 353 195 /