After Spotting a Woman Eating Alone, a Young Man Invites Her to Share a Meal with His Friends

A group of young Black men are being praised for their act of compassion toward an elderly woman at an Alabama restaurant.

Jamario Howard and his friends, JaMychol Baker and Tae Knight went out for a bite to eat at Brad’s Bar-B-Que in Oxford on the night of April 18 when they spotted an elderly woman sitting all alone.

Friends Eat with Elderly Woman

(Clockwise from top left) Buddies Tae Knight, JaMychol Baker and Jamario Howard shared conversation and laughs with their new friend Eleanor in an Alabama barbecue restaurant. (Facebook / Jamario Howard)

“My exact thoughts were ‘dang I’d hate to have to eat alone,”’ Howard wrote on Facebook. “So after thinking about it a minute, I walked over to her and asked if I could sit with her.”

The woman, identified by station FOX 46 as Eleanor, happily obliged and the two began talking. After a while, Howard said Eleanor revealed to him that she’d lost her husband and Friday would’ve marked their 60th wedding anniversary. The young man said he instantly gave his condolences and invited the woman to come eat with him and his friends.

“This woman changed my outlook on life and how I look at other people,” Howard wrote. “Everyone has a story so do not judge!”

Together, the newfound friends shared a meal and exchanged stories. Howard’s parting words of advice were to “always be kind and be nice” to people, because you don’t know what they’re going through.

“GO SEE YOUR MOM AND YOUR GRANDPARENTS. They miss you!!” he added.

The men’s simple act of kindness melted hearts across social media.

“God bless you 3 men, and thank God there are still people out in this world who have some Morals and good upbringing,” one Facebook user wrote. “Your parents would be proud.”

“Bless your heart,” another chimed in. “We’re usually too ‘shy’ to do something like this because ‘it’s not done.’ It SHOULD be done! Thank you for the encouragement!”

“What a wonderful story❤️,” another woman wrote. “Nice to see a positive situation taking place in this mixed up world. You and your friends where raised by good people. Keep in paying it forward.

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top