One man's compulsion to sit with a woman who was eating by herself in a restaurant has resulted in an amazing new bond of friendship.

Last week, Jamario Howards and his friends were sharing a meal at Brad's diner in Oxford, Alabama when he saw a woman named Eleanor sitting alone.

"My exact thoughts [were] 'dang I'd hate to have to eat alone,'" Howard recalled on Facebook.

The young man then approached Eleanor and asked if he could sit with her. Upon chatting about their lives, the elderly woman revealed that she was a widower and it was the day before her 60th wedding anniversary to her late husband.

Howards immediately asked Eleanor to have dinner with him and his two friends. After he posted a photo of the widower and her three new acquaintances to social media, it was shared thousands of times and featured on dozens of news outlets.

In a recent interview with CBS News, Eleanor says that she believes God sent her to the restaurant that night so she could be reminded of the kindness of strangers.

Howards, who says that he and his friends "already feel like they're her grandkids," says that they have all vowed to make time for their new surrogate grandma – and it seems that they are already meeting Eleanor at the restaurant for regular dinners.