Dessert parlour opening to commemorate the life of William Brown

His dad's opening the shop in Folkestone after his son died in a suspected hit and run in December 2023.

Transcript

00:00 Peace, forgiveness, unity, all the stuff that Will was basically, like Will's character.

00:07 He was just an easy going lad, wanted to get on with everyone, be a nice person.

00:13 Almost five months on from the tragic death of Will Brown Jr, his dad's opening a dessert

00:18 parlour in Folkestone in his honour. His son died aged seven in a suspected hit and run,

00:25 and now in his name, the shop will be filled with all of Will's favourite things.

00:29 I lost my son Will Brown, and obviously I'm trying to work out how to process it, so I've

00:36 decided to open this shop in his memory, because I really want to live in his memory and keep

00:42 him around me, keep all the positive thoughts around me. Basically about everything that

00:46 he loves, which is to be fair what most kids love, like ice cream, pick a mix, big outrageous

00:54 things like Doc Giant ice cream cones and big gumball machines.

00:57 Will used to like the big vending machines, and one night I thought, right, what can I

01:04 get in here? And I started googling huge gumball machines. I managed to find one in Holland,

01:10 it's seven foot tall, I think it's got 14,000 gumballs in.

01:14 Across the walls are paintings of Will, which were inspired by this video.

01:21 So he winks at the end, so can you see that? That's that.

01:31 For those who were lucky enough to know Will, the minute they step inside his shop, they'll

01:35 be reminded of all of his favourite things. And for those who didn't know Will, well the

01:40 minute they step inside, they'll be surrounded by all of his favourite foods, and all of

01:44 his favourite things.

01:47 Outside the van, there'll be the Mr Whippy, he loves slush puppy as well, so there'll

01:51 be slush puppy in here.

01:52 William now wants to teach young children all about the dangers of the roads.

01:56 I want to try and offer to all the local schools the opportunity, especially for year two,

02:02 to come in, watch a short video about traffic awareness and road safety, and then they'll

02:07 leave with a Will Brown Jr gumball and they can obviously use the machine, and hopefully

02:12 they'll take that away and remember Will, and they'll also remember obviously what happened

02:17 to Will, and it's really important that they look after themselves. And so we can obviously

02:24 limit the amount of tragedies moving forward.

02:27 Will's funeral in January was attended by thousands wanting to pay tribute to him. And

02:32 now Will Brown Jr's hopes to open its doors in time for the Maybank holiday on the 27th,

02:39 but there's still lots of work to do. His dad hopes this will give those that come along

02:43 a glimpse into the incredible person his son was.

02:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]