CAPE CORAL, Fla. — The holidays can be a rush trying to get the perfect meal done in time, but one Cape Coral man is reminding us what the season is about.
Fox 4’s Bella Line spent the day with the Williams family in northeast Cape Coral where they made sure no one spends the holiday alone.
Watch Bella's full report below:
“What do you look forward to every single time you're hosting these?” asked Line
"That person doing the little dance when they put the food in the mouth, that little happy dance when you get some food, that's what I can't wait to see,” said Barry Williams, the host.
As the Williams family prepared their Thanksgiving feast with a seafood boil and turkey, they were also getting ready to greet more than just their immediate friends and family.
"We actually ran into a police officer on the side of the road, and he was just sitting there eating gas station food, and I told him to come back follow us,” said Williams. "He came and he had a meal and we've been doing it every year ever since."
Barry is an Army veteran, so he knows what it's like to be away from home during the holidays.
The last four years, ever since he ran into that police officer, he's welcomed strangers into his home for the major holidays.
He and his family say that's what the season is all about.
"I did several holidays completely alone, and those are some bad holidays,” said Williams. "Nobody should spend a holiday alone. That's really why we do it."
It has attracted people like Richard Bardell who has known the Williams family for years and has attended all of their community Thanksgivings.
"I mean Florida itself is a melting pot so to have a place where you can have a lot of people come and it be a melting pot, you hear stories, you hear experiences, you have a comradery and there's not a lot of that, that you find in public anymore,” said Bardell.
Barry says they plan to continue this new tradition for years to come.
