Irish rock band, The Script, once sang “thinking maybe you’ll come back here to the place that we’d meet and you’ll see me waiting for you on the corner of the street.”
One Indonesian man did just that until the day he died.
Sipitdikit took to his Twitter profile to tell the story of Pak Arifin (who died in 2017), who had been waiting at the same spot in Malang, Indonesia since 1970, in hopes that his lost love will return.
Sipitdikit wrote, “Mr Gombloh or Pak Arifin, a loyal man who had been waiting for his lover to return since 1970 in a corner at the Kayu Tangan, Malang, until the end of his life. Pak Arifin was at the same place almost every day at this Kayu Tangan corner. He sat under the patio of a shop with the intention of waiting for his lover to arrive. Some say that he has been waiting from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, whichever is true.”
“According to the story, the old man was separated from his lover one day, during a political incident in Malang. This couple promised to meet each other again, in the same place where the promised to meet after the city became safe. Pak Arifin kept his promise to wait for his lover at the place where they promised to meet. But unfortunately, his lover never arrived. No one knows what the reason is.”
“He didn’t know the whereabouts of his lover, whether she was alive or dead. However, it was Pak Arifin’s loyalty that led his footsteps from his house in Ngantang to the Kayu Tangan area. He believed that one day, his lover will arrive.”
Sadly, he was found lying limp on the sidewalk one day, with bruises on his eyelids which indicated that he had been hit by something. He was taken to the Saiful Anwar Hospital where he succumbed to his condition, which appeared to be the damage done by a hit and run accident.
“Pak Arifin’s loyalty will always be remembered by the people who knew him, whether they had met him directly or those who are touched just by hearing about him.”
Though it’s been a few years since Pak Arifin passed, his story only recently went viral following posts of his life popping up all over the internet, inspiring people that true love does really exist.
We genuinely hope that Pak Arifin’s story inspires you, too.
What do you think about this? Let us know in the comment section.
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