MANHATTAN (PIX11) -- How do you say thank you to a man who’s been part of the fabric of Upper East Side life for three decades?
You throw a party for him at the restaurant where he’s worked since the 1990s.
He’s part of my family,” Philip Philips, the former owner of The Mansion Restaurant, told PIX11 News.
“He’s as important as my own kids,” he added.
Earl Wilcox,73, has been a cherished figure in Yorkville, an Upper East Side neighborhood, for thirty years.
And how he got his job helping out at the mansion restaurant is quite unusual.
“Earl was living in Carl Schurz Park. He was down there having some problems,” John Philips, the present owner of The Mansion Restaurant, told PIX11 News. “One of our tenants suggested we meet him, and we slowly developed a relationship with him,” he added.
Earl would do odd jobs around the restaurant and pick up the owners’ children at school.
He eventually moved into the restaurant's lower level and became a part of the family and neighborhood.
Earl has been battling cancer for seven years and is now moving to Florida to spend his remaining time with his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter.
More than a hundred Upper East Siders joined in a farewell celebration at the mansion restaurant to say thank you for 30 years of friendship.
“I don’t think there are words to say what they mean to him,” Latoya Lawrence, Earl’s daughter, told PIX11 News. “They took him in when he was sleeping on the street. They are his family,” she added.
To Earl Wilcox’s family in Florida, this outpouring of love from the Upper East Side means the world to them, and especially to Earl.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with medical expenses.
“He’s a phenomenal man,” Tom Delehanty, a neighbor, told PIX11 News. “We’ve known him 20 years. He’s watched kids grow up. He’s going to be sorely missed,” he added.
And 11-year-old Max Philips added “I just want to say thank you for all he’s done in my life. Just getting to spend these final moments with him means a lot to me and my family,” he added.
As Earl was being hugged by well-wishers, fighting back tears, he said, “I’m thankful to be in New York. It’s hurtful to leave.”
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