An emotional video of a woman's 86-year-old grandmother reuniting with her best friend has gone viral.
The TikTok video, capturing the moment the friends met after a year apart, gained traction for its clear depiction of pure, enduring friendship. The footage shows the two best friends embracing with an ecstatic joy that has touched over four million viewers. One of the friends' granddaughters, Camryn Kleinwaks, posted the video and spoke to Newsweek about the example of friendship that constantly inspires her.
"Choose your friends wisely because this is my 86-year-old grandma seeing her best friend of 76 years," Kleinwaks captioned the video. "Reminder that it's your grandma's first time living, too."
Kleinwaks said the women's friendship began when her grandmother, Barbara Marder, known as Bubbie, and Linda Lyons were just 10 years old, growing up in Brooklyn.
"They grew up together, got married and were in each other's weddings...and even became grandmothers about the same time," Kleinwaks said.
Over the decades, their friendship has overcome a number of challenges.
Bubbie moved to Maryland to raise her children while Lyons stayed in New York and later moved to Massachusetts. The distance, however, never broke their bond. A decade ago, Bubbie suffered a massive stroke, losing the ability to walk and talk, which made travel difficult for her. Lyons and her husband also now have health issues that prevent them from driving.
Despite these obstacles, their connection has remained a priority. Their daughters now arrange for the lifelong friends to meet halfway in Connecticut, at a diner that is a two-hour drive for each of them.
"For the last three or four years, they meet in August for a long lunch and a long hug," Kleinwaks said.
It was this year's reunion that was poignantly captured on video. According to Kleinwaks, the two women held each other for over a minute, and Kleinwaks' Bubbie kept repeating, "Oh my God. oh my God," which is one of the only phrases she can still say due to her condition.
"They were crying and I was, too," Kleinwaks said. "It was just so sweet and wholesome -- and you could just tell they really needed to be together."
The video became an instant sensation, and the family was "so touched to see how people responded to the TikTok."
Bubbie, in particular, was amazed by the viral video. Kleinwaks said they read her the comments, and she couldn't believe the attention their friendship was receiving.
Many of the comments reflected the sweetness and tenacity of the women's connection.
"Imagine how many times they had to forgive each other," one person wrote.
"Those aren't friends," another wrote. "Those are soul mate sisters."
Kleinwaks said it was "such a nice surprise for our family and for Linda's to see the world embrace their friendship...with everything going on in the world, I think we all just needed this feel-good type of content right now."
"They are an example of what the power of friendship could look like when you make that friendship important over a lifetime."