​Sainsbury’s Employee Has Coffee Mornings With Lonely Pensioners

There are some people who have hearts of gold.

Ellie Walker, who works in Sainsbury's had dinner with Edwin Holmes, a retired eighty-six-year old when she found out that he was spending his Christmas lunch alone. His daughter and grandchildren live thousands of miles away and couldn't make it back to Leeds in time.

So the twenty-two-year old invited him to dinner in the Sainsbury's cafe. And being the sweet man he is, he showed up with flowers. He said he felt 'as nervous as a school boy', and to be quite honest with you all, I just want to cry because this is all so lovely.

Credit: Sainsbury's Press Office

Since their dinner date, Ellie has met up with him for coffee several times. And she's thinking about starting up a lonely heart's club for pensioners in Sainsbury's.

It makes sense. OAPs love supermarket cafes and some of them are battling with loneliness, so it would be win/win for everyone. This could really help older people! Ellie is a bit of a genius.

"I've asked my manager if we could get a coffee morning going in our store with other lonely people," she told The Sun.

"If it works it's something we'd really like to see happening nationally."

She added: "I've had a few offers from different customers so I've invited them to come to a coffee morning."

Edwin has been "inundated" since going on the date and is now famous. "Edwin's gone from not having much to do with his days to being inundated. He loves his newfound fame - it's nice that people are recognising him. People have been messaging me and saying 'I know him and if he ever wants to chat' etc which is lovely.

"He was in yesterday and we went for a coffee and he said he'd been approached by someone in the market who recognised him.

"I've told him about the huge reaction on social media but I don't think he realises the magnitude of it. It's enough for him the recognition locally."

Ellie added: "It's brought the issue out there and I'm really glad it's served its purpose."

"He is without a shadow of a doubt my favourite customer. He is the cutest man and so chatty. I thought if it was my granddad and he was alone I would want someone to talk to him."

Former painter and decorator Edwin said: "The dinner made me very happy as it was unexpected and I had very pleasant company. As for the suit, it was my first date for about 55 years, and [I got] the flowers because I wasn't going to go empty handed."

What a gentleman.

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.