An Incredible Story

[joebingo]

At another forum I frequent, it's quite a long haul to read in full, but what unfolds is nigh on impossible to condense into a short story. I'll try my hardest though.

Basically, the thread starter, General Electric, overheard a conversation in the cafe where he works between 2 customers. One is a guitar player, and the other is a bass player (Arthur "Butch" Porter), whose life took some bad turns and he ended up having to sell all of his gear to make ends meet. He ended up homeless, but is now back on the up and back at work.

So General Electric started the thread to ask for recommendations as to what was a good cheap bass to get for Butch so he could start playing again. However, on the second page, Andre000 posted this:

I found this while searching for my older brother. His name is Butch Porter. I have not seen him in 40 years. I heard he was a Bass Player for a group called Empress. I think this is him. Anyway, I have been searching for him for most of my life. We were seaprated as children and I think this is the guy you are talking about. My name is Andre Porter and I live in California. PLEASE HELP ME!!!! If this is my long lost older brother I really want to see him again. I am thinking that this is some sort of miracle!
He was Born in April of 1958. I hear he is living somewhere in the NYC area. Thats all I know. Anyway, I would love to find him and talk to him and even help him if he needs anything. I am hoping you can contact me and tell me anything you know.
Again, my name is Andre Porter. my email address is xxxxxx@xxxxxx.com and my phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx. If Butch is indeed the long-lost brother I have been searching for, I beg you to please contact me right away so that I can see him and talk to him again after all of these years.

Quite obviously, from there on out, the thread became about getting Andre and Butch back into contact with each other and the two have set a date for a meeting/reunion to take place.

Finally, on page 30, CreativeAnise posted:

Okay, so I was doing an internet search and realized my uncle(I have never met this uncle but we have connected on the phone years ago) found my father, Butch Porter. I lost contact with my father almost two years ago. I realize he has been going through some hardships, he lost his cell phone in the process, and we have lost touch with eachother. I miss him, I am crazy about him, and if anyone could help us connect, it would be deeply appreciated. My father, Arthur Porter, is usually good at staying in touch with me, but I guess because of his extreme hardships, he has lost touch. I just did a google search today, and read the forum, so, this is no coincidence, not only was his brother looking for him, but so isn't his oldest daughter. I miss my affectionate, artist father. Please help me.
My email is xxxxxx@xxxxx.com and my aim is xxxxxxxx.
Sincere thanks and I look forward to hearing from someone.

You can read the full thread here: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=611919

Quite incredible, I'm sure you'll agree

 

[ttcycle]

That is absolutely heartwarming

 

[ColinJ]

Blimey - the amazing power of Google - What a heart-warming story! I just speed-read the entire thread but it still took me about 20 minutes.

That's one in the eye for people who claim that forums are a total waste of time. I've been criticised for the amount of time I spend here on CycleChat but I just pointed out that I met 10 people off the forum in 2009 and went on some really good scenic rides with them. What's wrong with that?

 

[Kirstie]

Quite astonishing. What I liked the most about it was that the whole thing emanated from a genuine, selfless act of kindness on the part of the OP. Talk about Karma!

It was helpful that he had such an unusual name and did something quite distinctive - that's the power of google, for good or for ill - he was more easily traceable on an internet search than john smith or whatever...