12/18/2025
Can I Get An Amen?
A âGrandma Standâ where volunteer elders offer to lend an ear to anyone that sits down across from a real grandmother to chit-chat, ask advice, or just vent a little to someone whoâs seen it all. The idea was dreamt up by the New York City reporter Mike Matthews, who recommended a female coworker call his grandmother for a talk. The coworker, whom he described as a guarded Brooklyn hipster, admitted it was the âweirdest thing that anyoneâs ever said,â to her. Nevertheless, she called Matthewsâ grandmotherâ95-year-old Eileen Wilkinson, and was so impacted by the connection after separating with her boyfriend of 5 years, that the two had chats every week for years. The difference that Wilkinsonâs empathy and years of wisdom made for Matthewsâ coworker gave him the idea of opening a âGrandma Standâ on the streets of Brooklyn. His nan lived in Washington, so he left a cheap laptop with a video chat open and wrote a sign on the box that anyone who needed a bit of company could sit down and talk. Wilkinson passed away at the age of 102, but her legacy at that booth took on a life of its own. Now in McKinney, Texas, a team of volunteer grandmas rotate counselor roles behind the same style of purple lemonade stand that Matthews first used with his grandmother and laptop. The Grandma Stand is being replicated by others around the US.
On her first 150-minute shift, she spoke with a father of three who wanted parenting advice, and a couple struggling with fertility issues.
