Customers at the California store buy donuts a dozen to give the owner time with his wife

Since customers and community members learned in mid-October that Stella Chhan was sick, they arrive in Donut City, Seal Beach, south of Los Angeles, to buy donuts a dozen. The goal is to allow John Chhan to close his store in Southern California every day so he can spend time with Stella, his wife.

Dawn Caviola, 58, has been a Donut City regular for 13 years. She visited her daughter twice a month. But during her last visit, she discovered that 62-year-old John Chhan was the sole storekeeper, as 63-year-old Stella Chhan had an aneurysm at the end of September and was recovering in a rehabilitation center.

"I went home and I just could not get out," Caviola told NBC News on Saturday. "They are so hardworking people."

Caviola decided to write an article on the Nextdoor Private Community Network to urge local residents to help her.

"I've never done anything like that before, but I thought if everyone could buy a dozen donuts, it could help, I did not think it would get that big," she said. she declared.

The blog article said that if they managed to buy back his inventory for the day, Chann could leave early to spend time with his wife.

The message immediately became viral on social media and Facebook – in part because the donut shop is considered an institution in the region.

For 28 years, the couple and their baker go to the store every day at 2 am to prepare the donuts. They then open to the community at 4:30 am, seven days a week. It's a routine to which they have more or less held themselves since the opening of the shop in 1990, a decade after Cambodia's immigration.

Marc Loopesko, Seal Beach resident for 22 years, has been in the store for nearly two decades. He was one of the hundreds of people in the area who saw the job and decided to move on to action.

"[Donut City] has always been a local place and convenient for when I had a craving for donut, "he said.

Loopesko decided that in addition to buying donuts, the community might propose the idea of ​​creating a GoFundMe page for the Chhans, but the shop owner politely refused, saying he would rather spend more time with his wife .

Caviola said that she wanted to help give it to him. "People can simply do something simple for their neighbors," she said. "There are people who do not even eat sugar who buy donuts from Mr. Chhan and give them to strangers."

Saturday morning, John Chhan was preparing to close his store at 8:30. "We have already sold everything," he told NBC News. "I feel very warm and very happy, thank you all."

Chhan also said that his wife was recovering well and that he hoped to find her soon in the store.

"She's doing a lot better," he said. "She can talk now and she is learning to eat again."