You can expect nothing less from the kind-hearted Patel family behind Meet and Deep News who ended up opening their store all evening on New Year’s Eve to celebrate with a local homeless man.
With plans to shut shop at 10pm and head home for food and to watch the fireworks, the evening took an unexpected turn for the better.
Eric - a local homeless man who has been receiving food, warmth and clothes from Shasi and Pallu Patel and sons Meeten and Deep for the past five months - arrived at the Twickenham store just as the family was closing up.
Meeten said charity Crisis had given Eric a “fancy hotel room” in Hyde Park as part of its ‘Crisis over Christmas’ initiative, but he chose to head back to the store. Eric said to the family: “I’ve got no family - you are my family so I come to celebrate New Year’s Eve with you.”
So the family scrapped their original plan to close at 10pm and filled the store with music and played games. As the clock struck midnight, they all stepped outside, joined by neighbours, and taught Eric the traditional NYE song ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
Meeten said Eric had experienced a really tough year and it finished with “happy memories”.
Meet and Deep News also welcomed locals to their store on Christmas Day.
Read more about the impressive raft of heartfelt initiatives the Patel family has embarked on over the years here.
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