Lonely Burger-Eating Papaw Gives the Internet a Sad

'He made 12 burgers for all 6 grandkids and I’m the only one who showed'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 18, 2016 2:34 PM CDT
Lonely Burger-Eating Papaw Gives the Internet a Sad
The sad, burger-cooking papaw who launched a thousand memes.   (Twitter)

One sad, burger-cooking grandpa took the Internet by storm this week, inspiring everything from amusing memes to death threats, US Magazine reports. It all started Wednesday when Kelsey Harmon, a college softball player from Oklahoma, dropped in for a meal with her papaw. "Dinner with papaw tonight…he made 12 burgers for all 6 grandkids and I’m the only one who showed,” she tweeted, along with a photo of her papaw dejectedly eating a burger. Harmon tells BuzzFeed her papaw decided to have her and her cousins over while they were home for spring break. He even made their favorite homemade ice cream. "I could tell he was disappointed," she says. But while she and her papaw ate alone, her tweet went viral.

Within 24 hours, it had 70,000 retweets and 110,000 likes. Harmon's papaw was suddenly a meme (examples here, here, and here). Even Montel Williams got in on the action, Today reports. People got so invested in the well-being of Harmon's papaw, they started tweeting death threats to her MIA cousins. Her papaw's new Internet fame was even enough to convince another grandchild to belatedly show up for a burger. Harmon tells BuzzFeed her papaw appreciates all the kind words and support from the Internet. And she thinks some good may have actually come out of a very silly situation. "I've also had many, many messages telling me my post encouraged people everywhere to visit their grandparents," she tweeted. "And that means so much to me." (The Internet also loves the woman who did her own makeup mid-labor.)

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