Chan Fuk-hing, a homeless 76-year-old woman who sells newspapers in Mong Kok, was hospitalised on Monday evening after she fell and sprained her wrist.
Despite Chan’s insistence on operating her stall, members of the community discovered she was running a fever and convinced her to see a doctor, who admitted her to hospital. She is currently on bedrest, and has dislocated her shoulder.
To prevent people pilfering from her newspaper stand, local residents and workers tidied away Chan’s stall with her permission at 4pm yesterday in order to keep her stock and cash safe, Apple Daily reports.
As of 1pm today, Chan’s family told reporters that the 76-year-old is finally retiring, after spending over 70 years selling newspapers.
Chan is known affectionately as “Sleeping Grandma”, as she has been spending the night at her newspaper stall ever since her landlord refused to renew her apartment lease in early 2015.
She made headlines two weeks ago when she was robbed of HKD10,000 and injured in the process. In 2015, a thief stole HKD35,000 from her as she was sleeping at her stall.
After both incidents, many Hongkongers flocked to Chan’s shop on Shantung Street to make donations, or simply “overpay” her for their papers, with one man reportedly giving her HKD2,000 for a copy of Oriental Daily and telling her to keep the change.
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