A Bristol woman who lost her purse shopping on Christmas Eve, has decided to give back to The Big Issue Foundation after a Big Issue vendor found and returned her purse on Christmas Day.
Yukiko Hosomi, 46, noticed she had lost the purse while out shopping on North Street, Bedminster, and resigned herself to never seeing it again.
However, she received a knock on her door at 5pm on Christmas Day when Big Issue vendor, Ioan Covaci, who sells the magazine outside McColl’s on North Street, sent his son to return the purse.
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Yukiko said: “I was a bit sad because it was Christmas Eve and it’s not the kind of thing you want happening at Christmas. I’m Japanese and my mum in Japan told me whenever she loses her purse it just comes back but I was sure that in the UK there would be no way it would come back.
“We had just settled down on Christmas Day when somebody knocked on the door. I was just completely speechless. I just couldn’t believe it. I felt the Christmas miracle happened to me for a reason and my faith in kindness has been rekindled.”
Ioan Covaci, who has been a Big Issue vendor for ten years, explained he found the purse and held it up on his pitch in case the owner returned to look for it but when she didn’t, he decided to return the purse after finding an address on Yukiko’s driving licence.
He sent his son to do the ten-mile journey to return the purse on Christmas Day. Ioan said: “I’m happy that I could do something noble on Christmas Day. I kept thinking there are so many documents and cards in this purse that she must be worried and that’s when I decided the easiest way to do this is to return her purse to her home address.
“I felt very content with my decision. My children speak English very well and we agreed to do a kind gesture this Christmas and go to her house. The lady was so happy, and she hugged my son when he returned the purse. I think this definitely made her Christmas Day a lot better.”
Yukiko says the vendor’s son refused to accept a reward for the kind gesture but she has since visited the vendor on his pitch to say thank you.
The kind gesture has prompted her to raise money for The Big Issue Foundation, The Big Issue’s charitable arm.
Yukiko started sewing face masks at the start of the pandemic after initially picking up the hobby in her native Japan.
Now she is offering to send out hand-made masks or hand-deliver them in Bristol in exchange for a donation to The Big Issue Foundation.
She says: “It’s always this kindness that comes from the people who haven’t got that much. That has made me completely overwhelmed and I still feel overwhelmed.”
To buy a mask just head to Yukiko’s JustGiving page here.
To donate to The Big Issue’s Winter Appeal, visit www.bigissue.com/support
