Cafe owner urges community to 'look after' each other

Tutu Melaku said 95-year-old Colin Dennis was thriving because he lived with his daughter

The owner of a community cafe has urged people to look out for one another.

Tutu Melaku, who owns Tutu's Ethiopian Table in Palmer Park, Reading, said she called her regular customers - many of whom are elderly - if she did not see them for a week.

Ms Melaku, who appeared on BBC Radio Berkshire's Breakfast Show with Phil Mercer as a guest editor, urged people to "look after" the elderly, saying that in Ethiopia people's elderly parents would live with them "no question".

"As a community, we have to reach out to them," she said.

"Please knock on somebody's door, please call them. Please tell them you are there."

• Listen to Phil Mercer's Breakfast Show

'They trust us'

Ms Melaku, who won a local community award for her business in September, said it was "all about" caring for people.

"People have a lot of problems," she said.

"When we grow up in Ethiopia, our elderly family, you don't have [a] choice. They live with us because we don't have a [care home] system... because of this I think this [is] like my job in a way, to look after the elderly."

Ms Melaku won a community award for her cafe

She said one of her customers, 95-year-old Colin Dennis, was healthy, happy and "very independent" - something she put down to the fact he lived in an annex next to his daughter's house.

"It's just beautiful because I see him, he's always happy... we know why," she said.

And Mr Dennis said the independence the arrangement afforded him was "very important".

"I'd be quite lost without it," he said.

He said he had meals with his daughter and her husband, and sometimes watched their television.

"They do look after me, there's absolutely no doubt about that," he said.

"But, if I want to be on my own, I can be."

Mr Dennis said his independence was "very important" to him

Ms Melaku, who has been running the cafe for 18 years, said it thrived on the local community.

"My community comes from everywhere because I'm welcoming everybody, doesn't matter what age, what race you are," she said.

"I think that's why the cafe's still here because my main thing [is] serving [the] community.

"I believe when you're serving [the] community the business will take care of itself."

And she said the benefits went both ways.

"It's good even for me, for my soul, for my heart, when I go home I know I did something good," she said.

"That's what life's all about - you look after people and the people look after you back."