The story of 90-year-old "Nana," a Bed-Stuy woman who has spent her life helping others
NEW YORK - At 90 years old, Ethel Bruce has lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant for more than 70 years. In this neighborhood, she is lovingly called "Nana."
"Everyone in the neighborhood knows her, and while Nana may never ever give you money, like even the homeless people who know her, they'll come and ask her for a plate of food, Nana will never turn them away," says her granddaughter, Medesa Garrett.
For nearly 10 years, racks of clothing and boxes of household items have stood right outside her Howard Avenue home with a sign that says "Nana Free Things."
"Everything I put out, kids clothes, baby clothes, they come and get it," she tells CBS2's Hannah Kliger.
It started after she realized the local church she was donating to was charging for the items, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.
"You don't have to charge people money for everything, you give it to them. And good things will come back to them," she says.
Her family, who helps to maintain the free store, says nearly every morning, they find bags of donated clothing and small household items left near the doorstep, which then get sorted, sometimes washed, and placed outside. Nana also takes orders for people looking for something specific.
"Winter time and school time is probably the most popular because you have kids in the neighborhood with uniforms, you put the uniforms out there and they really go really fast, and the jackets as well," Garrett says.
It's not just the free store that has earned the community's love. Her whole life has been dedicated to helping as many people as she can. She fostered and then adopted five of her nine kids.
"She has a really, really big heart. The free clothes and her adopting me and my four siblings, it doesn't even scratch the surface," said her son Isiah Bruce.
With more than a dozen grandkids, and even more great-grandchildren, at any given time, her home is full of beloved family and neighbors. And her stoop, of grateful strangers. Marc Galvan, who lives in the neighborhood, stopped to pick up a printed coat he liked.
"To have this closet, basically, outside is incredible," he said, holding the black-and-white Zara piece.
Another man was cleaning out a nearby building and brought a handful of household appliances to add to the pile. For Nana, this is just an average day.
"It makes me feel good that I can help somebody," she says with a smile.
Nana says she grew up in a family of more than 20 kids and learned from her parents who also adopted children who needed a loving home.
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