A Bunch Of Ice Cream Vans Held A Funeral Procession To Honour The ‘King Of The Ice Cream’
Time to grab a tub of ice cream and sob into it.
Over the weekend, footage of a funeral procession featuring a fleet of ice cream trucks left people in tears.
Shared to Twitter by Louisa Davies late Friday night, the short but sweet clip showed 10 ice cream vans following the hearse of 62-year-old Hassan Dervish in Camberwell, London.
“Just witnessed an ice cream man’s funeral and all the ice cream vans came and followed in solidarity,” Louisa tweeted alongside the video that has been watched over 13 million times on Twitter.
“I AM SOBBING.”
just witnessed an ice cream man’s funeral and all the ice cream vans came and followed in solidarity I AM SOBBING pic.twitter.com/bJhyJj4JoK
— Louisa Davies (@LouisaD__) December 17, 2021
As the footage went viral online, it was soon uncovered that the funeral procession was for Hassan Dervish, a man who earned the title ‘King of the Ice Cream‘ after opening an ice cream factory in the early 2000s and serving frozen treats to the people of South London for over 40 years.
According to the Washington Post, before Hassan died of stage four cancer he had always “loved ice cream and was curious about what life would be like to bring smiles to so many people” — something Hassan clearly achieved with how many of his ice cream friends showed up to send him off one final time.
“The first one came and then there was another and then there was another,” Hassan’s brother Savash Turkel told the Washington Post about the funeral. “All of a sudden, there were probably 10 ice cream trucks that followed him all the way to the cemetery. There were so many ice cream trucks for my brother.”
“He was in the ice cream trade for all of his life,” he continued. “He was passionate about the work he was doing. He was always helping out all his friends. He helped them all out.”
“That’s why so many people loved him. My brother was a really honest and hard-working person. He touched so many hearts in so many ways.”
“It makes me so proud of him.”
I attended this funeral, I’m amazed how much of an impact it has had to the area 🥰 pic.twitter.com/ci4HVAk2io
— Ismail Mehmet (@ismail_mehmet) December 17, 2021
As it turns out, Hassan isn’t the only ice cream man who has been given such a sweet send off in the ice cream community.
Similar to how truckies line up together when one of their own dies, ice cream van processions are actually a common tradition within the ice cream community in the UK.
For example, back in February 10 ice cream vans gathered for a funeral cortege in Hampshire when 86-year-old ice cream “legend” Pasquale Marucci died during lockdown and his family couldn’t organise a wake.
Similarly, a convoy of ice cream trucks drove through Dorset in July when John ‘Mr Mac’ Lennie passed away after serving his community ice cream for 48 years.
— louisa keight (pronounced “keet”) (@louisakeight) December 17, 2021
Now I don’t know about you but I need a tub of ice cream and a good cry right about now.