The Internet and Happy Endings

This week a couple Facebook posts really made me think about the Internet and how it helps bring about happy homecomings.

 “Wouldn’t the world be sad without the Internet?” posted a 20-something colleague of mine.

 I am of an age old enough to remember life without Internet. I remember saying, “I’ve got to get on that thing they call the Internet,” and then throwing up my hands in despair after reading about ftp protocols in “Internet for Dummies.” Dropbox hadn’t been invented, of course.

 My first true foray into Internet use was when I searched for my home in 1994 on Homeseekers.com. Online photos were rare and at best, you might find one. Google Maps and Earth didn’t exist, so I would print out lists of homes, find them on our Thomas Guide and drag my husband to far corners of Orange and Los Angeles Counties. I would have been ecstatic to do the kind of “Google drive-bys” that are now possible.

My husband and I settled on Long Beach because the Internet helped me determine that it was the most affordable coastal community and there were a number of older homes with charm.

Since getting into the real estate business in 1998, I have helped hundreds of home buyers and sellers make successful transitions, utilizing the Internet. Photos and virtual tours are instrumental in helping people sell homes and we’ve had people buy homes from across the country without seeing them in person.

But this past week, I heard about another homecoming of sorts that occurred thanks to the Internet.

A while  back, Long Beach animal control posted a picture of a homeless man being reunited with his dog, who had been impounded.  The man hadn’t been able to afford the fees so a stranger paid them for him. Others donated pet food and supplies.

A friend of mind read the post, as did I, and found it heartwarming. Then she saw him on the street and started talking to him. He told her that he really wanted to get off the streets, to live in an apartment, to get his life together.

She posted on Facebook that she was going to give him a gift card to a grocery store or pet supply store and did anyone want to donate. I gave her a gift card and so did others. His picture was passed along by someone who recognized him and she received an email from a woman in Northern California who turned out to be his ex-girlfriend. She put the two of them in touch after finding out that he viewed this woman as the long lost “love of his life.”

They are now together. He is living in an apartment. He is working. And he expects to be regaining custody of his two kids.

Another happy ending via the Internet.