Charlotte Ellis and Taylor Waldon knew they should have gone home earlier.
But the young couple, both of whom are 22, were having too much fun. They were out for a night on the town in London, and they were drinking heavily. They just didn’t want the night to end.
So by the time they wound their way back to the train station that would take them home, they found the doors shut and the gates locked. The last train had long since embarked. They were stuck, and the temperature continued to drop.
They checked the train schedule. They would have to wait four hours in the bitter cold before they could catch a ride home. Huddling together for warmth was their only hope — at least until they heard a voice echo from a darkened corner.
“You can borrow my coat and duvet if you want,” said the voice.
At some point, Ellis and Waldon decided that no price was too great to get out of the cold. They called a taxi. And they refused to leave Joey behind.
“I told Joey that I refused to leave without him,” Ellis told the “Mirror.”
Ellis and Waldon brought Joey back to Ellis’ mom’s home in the London suburb of Billericay. After a warm rest, they “talked for hours, exchanged life stories and instantly became the best of friends,” Ellis said. As for Ellis’ mother, she accepted the stranger in her home surprisingly quickly.
“As soon as she met him she understood why we had done what we had done,” Ellis said. “I knew she would understand.”
Five days after meeting the young couple in the freezing London night, Joey found a job.
“We have faith in him, we help him,” Ellis said. “But more importantly we give him our time and friendship.”
This story just goes to show that you never know where your next new friend will come from. It’s also an important reminder to avoid jumping to conclusions about people who are trapped in very difficult situations. That’s the main lesson Ellis learned from her time with Joey, she said.
“Just because someone is “homeless” it doesn’t make them any less of a person than me or you and it doesn’t mean that all “homeless” people are drug or alcohol abusers,” she said. “Not all homeless people should be instantly tarnished as bad people. They are just like me and you.”
