Grandmas Offer Nonjudgmental Comfort to Anxious New Yorkers at a Purple Lemonade Stand in Central Park

Grandma Stand is a wonderful place where people can sit down and talk to a grandma for free whenever they need a comforting, nonjudgmental shoulder to cry on.

At a time when the lack of connection is epidemic, wise and witty grandmothers sit behind a lemonade-style stand in NYC’s Central Park, offering heartfelt life lessons to passersby.

This self-explanatory idea came about by accident in 2012, when a distraught co-worker went into Mike Matthews‘ office in New York City to talk about a recent breakup. Matthews suggested that the co-worker call his own grandmother, Eileen, who lived 3,000 miles away in Sammamish, Washington. The co-worker thought it was odd that Matthews was giving her his grandmother’s phone number, but the pairing turned out to be a great success.

The following week, the same co-worker came bouncing into Mike’s office, shut the door and said, “Grandma Eileen is incredible. I feel lifted. I can’t explain it, but she just made me feel like everything was going to be ok.” For the next several months, a 26 year-old hipster and a 96 year-old grandma spoke every week and became best friends.

Matthews and his grandmother were happy to share their love with thousands of New Yorkers at a converted lemonade stand in Central Park. After Eileen’s death in 2018 at the age of 2018, Matthews retired the Grandma Stand. Seeing a growing need for a little grandmotherly comfort, Matthews decided to bring the stand back again in 2024.

But, one afternoon in early 2024, Mike thought about how almost every friend he had was struggling some level of disruption in their family or with job insecurity, political division, loneliness, mental health, the list went on. It was time to bring back the Grandma Stand.

This time around, he painted the stand purple (Eileen’s favorite color) and invited a rotating roster of grandmas to listen while sitting next to Eileen’s enduringly kind face.

Every week there’s a rotation of grandmas, discussion prompts and locations where the Grandma Stand pops-up. So, anybody passing by can spend a couple minutes with an anonymous, non-judgemental grandma who is there to listen.

While Matthews is based in New York City, people in other cities can reach out to nominate a Grandma Stand for their neighborhood.

Thank you for your desire to spread grandma goodness and start a stand in your city. What began in NYC in 2012 has now spread to various cities in the U.S. and the world!

A documentary about this wonderful project aired on May 1, 2026, and is available to stream on PBS.