On Tuesday, German journalist Torsten Beeck posted to Twitter that his father was in a hospital after a stroke and was bored there. Beeck asked his followers to "send him a postcard."
Hey Internet! Mein Vater hatte vor 2 Wo. einen Schlaganfall, wird Monate im KKH bleiben. Er langweilt sich. Schreib… https://t.co/o6NKOMlPSG
Beeck's tweet got a lot of attention. Strangers on Twitter praised him for his kindness.
@TorstenBeeck Geht auch ne normale Karte? Ich mein, mein Urlaub ist ja schon vorbei... 🙄 (was für eine tolle Idee❤️)
"Can it also be a normal card? My holiday is already over...
(what a great idea ❤️)"
He encouraged people to send any sort of messages to his dad, including "Football, politics, Hamburg, but actually he is interested in everything."
@WeberKerstin Fußball, Politik, Hamburg, aber eigentlich interessiert er sich für alles. Danke!
And other people said that they will actually send cards to Papa Beeck.
@TorstenBeeck Die arme Krankenhaus-Poststelle 😄 Meine Karte ist unterwegs. Ihm und euch alles Gute!
"The poor hospital post office 😄 My card is on the way. All the best to you and him!"
@TorstenBeeck Am Wochenende habe ich einen Roadtrip von Kiel nach Luzern gemacht mit dem Bus. Photos werde ich mit… https://t.co/pK5a1G7XGO
On the weekend I did a roadtrip by bus from Kiel to Lucerne. I will send photos with a small report."
@TorstenBeeck oh, sehr gute idee. ich werde auch eine schreiben heute.
"Oh, very good idea. I will write one today."
Hours later, the first postcards were in the mail.
@TorstenBeeck
@TorstenBeeck Eine Portion Glück ist auch von uns auf dem Weg... @andreasmoring
On Thursday, Beeck confirmed that the cards had started reaching his father.
Es hat begonnen. #PapaBekommtPost u.a. von @kersti1910 und @herzblutde
And post just keeps showing up!
Tag 2: 57 Karten! #PapaBekommtPost u.a. vom @SPIEGELONLINE und @dvg. Er hat gefragt, ob Bundeskanzlerin auch geschr… https://t.co/7bM6F12XKb
"Day 2: 57 cards! Papa received mail from @SPIEGELONLINE and d2vg among others. He asked whether Chancellor has also written. Thank you!"
BuzzFeed News reached out to Beeck for further comment.
This post was translated from German.