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Florida mom started a 'Pandemic of Love' that's raised more than $15 million for people in need

Florida mom started a 'Pandemic of Love' that's raised more than $15 million for people in need

On a Sunday evening in late April, community activist and Pandemic of Love founder Shelly Tygielski received a surprising phone call. "It's Joe. I'm with my wife Jill," said a familiar voice on the other end. Shelly threw her hands over her eyes, completely in shock. She thought to herself, "Is Joe Biden really calling me right now? Is this a joke?"

Shelly started the grass roots, nonprofit organization Pandemic of Love on March 14, in her hometown of Lighthouse Point, Florida. She's a meditation teacher and social activist, participating as a precinct captain for Democrats, as well as teaching retreats using trauma-informed healing practices to those affected by gun violence and mass shootings. She also provides gifts and necessities for impoverished schools in Pahokee, Florida supporting the Hope Symphony and partnered with the Water Warrior Project to provide Navajo and Hopi natives with clean water each day.


Before the pandemic hit, Shelly conversed with the 15,000 members of her meditation practice, discussing the coronavirus crisis. She realized that many people around her area live paycheck to paycheck. It wasn't feasible for them to stock up on goods if they had no money. She put together a mutual aid concept for Pandemic of Love, reflecting on the main principle of mindfulness and care she preaches each day. She figured if individuals have essential needs like food, rent, transportation costs, etc. and people who have the privilege to fulfill them, a concept she's successfully done before, she could create something within her community to help people.

In less than 24 hours, her childhood friend from San Francisco saw her Instagram post about the new organization she created and wanted to replicate it. The next day, Shelly had 400 families fill out the get help application and over 500 fill out the give help forms. Shelly proceeded to start matching them one by one, painstakingly looking at each person's needs. Soon after, micro communities formed across the globe (Pandemia de Amor for Latin countries) and over 500 volunteers got involved.

The national volunteer team works all week, 16 hour days, matching donors in their neighborhood with a person in need. It's a tangible way for donors to also directly pay their match. Celebrities like Chelsea Handler and Debra Messing donated and shared Pandemic of Love on their socials and the volume grew further. One donor gave $10,000 to cover medical bills and funeral costs, another gave the same amount to single mothers in South Florida, while the next donated $25,000 to help struggling families. People have forged relationships and have come to know each other beyond the initial transactions. She's raised $13.5 million dollars in the last eight weeks.

When former Vice President Joe Biden called Shelly, she couldn't believe it. "I was dying, I could barely breathe. It was amazing to get that shout out," says Shelly. He called to tell her how proud he was. Biden said, "Thank you for the wonderful things you are doing, you're changing people's lives. When I announced a year ago I was running, I said I was running to restore the soul of America. You are the soul of America."



This week, I joined Shelly and 35 volunteers across the country for a virtual party to celebrate the organization hitting 100,000 matches of donors and recipients. One volunteer, Simone Handler shared about her contribution as a donor. She lives in San Francisco and met Shelly at a conference involving the survivors of the Parkland shooting in Florida last year. Simone matched with Broadway singer named Mauricio Martinez, a four-time cancer survivor suffering from depression, who lost work due to Covid-19 while living in Manhattan. "He didn't really ask for much," says Simone. "I texted him asking what he needed and was struggling with. I told him that I was there for him. He was always so gracious and thanking me every time I helped him out," she says. "I'm happy to be friends with him now and hopefully see his career come back when all this mess is over. It's a joy to know him, see his talent and hear from him every few days."

Mauricio responded by saying that he feels so lucky and grateful. When Simone started helping him out, he couldn't believe it. Most of his family lives in Mexico over 2,000 miles away from his home in New York. "I'm all by myself in this crazy city," he says. "I know firsthand as a cancer survivor how important generosity and kindness are. Simone has definitely brightened up my life and days. It's forced us to be connected and create a bond. Simone is a bond that I will have for life. I will never forget this." His way of giving back was singing a beautiful rendition of "Being Alive" from the musical Company for all of us.

As the celebration continued, Shelly raised her wine glass for a toast. "It takes one act of kindness, one idea—but if no one else latches onto that idea and if nobody else actually jumps on board, or decides to rise up, then it's not a movement. None of this would ever be possible. I'm absolutely grateful because it's a movement of us," she says. "This is a collective— something that can continue long after this pandemic is over and there is a vaccine. This human connection is so important. People need to be seen and heard. It's so beautiful to offer and get in return. I want to create a tsunami of love. Long after the coronavirus is dead, the virus of love can still be alive."






In the wake of the Pandemic of Love milestone, Upworthy spoke with Shelly about how to get involved and her plans moving forward with the charitable acts of kindness.

After a person who needs help fills out the application on your website—do you hear their story and decide if they really need help? How does it work?

If a donor is willing to give a $100 gift card to a super market, then the vetting is very light. We will Google the recipient, see their social media presence and match them by email. No money ever runs through Pandemic of Love. We are not a 501(c)(3). We are a volunteer based organization and none of our volunteers or area leaders ever touch money. We don't need to file anything. It's so simple and that's why it's exportable and why it can continue to grow. The beautiful thing about this is that it's a direct give. The donor will use Venmo, write a check or send e-cards. Say you, as the donor, just sent Sally a Walmart card for $100 so she can buy food for her child. That's where the human connection comes in. Now, I know Sally and I can text her and call her. In two weeks, I can follow up and say, "Are you going okay on food? Do you need anything? How can I help you?" That's the beauty of it. There is that human connection.

What happens if someone needs more than $100? Do they need to provide more substantial proof?

If it's over $250 dollars, and a person needs help with rent or they've been evicted, like some people in Alabama experienced in the early stages of Covid-19, we ask them to send us a letter and phone number of the landlord and our volunteers will call. They have also become advocates, as well. Our volunteers will negotiate with the landlord and then pay them. Every week, I do two trainings on Zoom for our volunteers and I train hundreds of them. We have 540 volunteers, but that's the core leaders of our areas and communities. Beyond that, they have other volunteers who help with vetting and social media. The truth is, I don't even know how many volunteers we have anymore. It's crazy that our network is so vast now. Our affiliate micro communities even have their own Instagram and Facebook accounts too.

Cities, states and other countries are creating micro communities out of Pandemic of Love. How are you training all these volunteers?

In order to start, you click get involved. You send us an email and we ask you about yourself and then we call. A rule of thumb is that you need at least five volunteers that are already recruited. When I first started, a person in Long Island reached out who wanted to start a micro community. Then three weeks later, that person didn't have time anymore. It was a problem. Once you get your volunteers, we train all of them at once. There are also a few steps you need to take. You have to watch a YouTube training video I made, you watch a best practice Zoom call that was recorded and you have to upload things to a master contact sheet and create your socials. Then we create the links that you can edit, give links for sharing and then we put it on our website. It can take three to four days or a couple of weeks to get it together.

Do recipients ever become volunteers?

A lot of people in need are now volunteers. Once you are matched, you are put in our archives, so you can go back and fill out another form if you need more help. But if you come up 37 times in our sheets, we flag them. We try to get back within 24 to 48 hours. Suzie Israel is a recipient and received a few times and now she helps and gives back with her computers skills in Asheville, NC. Volunteers help with social media. I don't know if this organization would exist outside South Florida without it. I don't know if donors or celebrities would have found us. The people in the pandemic of love family are all on a What's App chat group and we chat every day—Now, everywhere I go in the country, I know someone who has helped with this organization.

Have you found people to be deceptive?

Sure, of course. People can be assholes, too. There are days when I think why am I even doing this? Why is this person such a prick? Then you get these amazing stories and you remember why. We weed people out. We aren't investigative reporters or the CIA. At the end of the day, if your quality of life is going to be changed by giving a person $100, then you shouldn't. There have been people who aren't as grateful. There are people that sometimes will have multiple people in their household fill out the forms or use different names. We catch those. People who try to scam the system aren't always the smartest. People send us these crazy stories—there is a woman who wrote something that could have been a sci-fi movie and then we flagged it. We respond kindly. We tell them that we are sorry for their suffering and ask them to provide a picture ID. Of course, we also want to protect our donors. Usually they don't respond or make up some excuse. Or we ask to pay a bill directly and that weeds people out. There are sometimes bad apples in the bunch. This goes back to my Buddhist philosophy, but we have to assume every individual is suffering, and the way they are treating you stems from that place of suffering. We try to do the best we can.

Can a donor help more than one person?

They totally can. When they fill out the form, it indicates if they want to give one time only, more than once, or if they would be interested in being matched with more than one family. You indicate what you want and then we match people. If you've written that you want to give twice, before we match you a second time, we'll ask if you're ready with the next match. Donors sometimes don't follow through and sometimes the needs change or the ability to give changes, which is totally understandable. We saw more of that in the beginning because people were furloughed. But a lot of times donors will give a $100, but then you've talked to the person in need, you bond and you realize that they really need a lot more. Most times the donor ends up giving way more money. For example, we've had so many people send Amazon Prime or Target diapers, wipes, formula and other types of things directly to their home in addition to giving them money.

Why not file Pandemic of Love with the government?

My gut and every fiber in me says no. I'm so not reaching out to the government. The problem is that you have all these fees you have to pay and people don't think you are transparent enough. There are also limitations of who we can help, such as undocumented workers. I feel like if it doesn't help the cause, then, why do it? So, I can get a salary? That sounds absurd to me. Maybe in the future if this continues, proliferates and grows, I would hope there would be somebody who sees the value in it like an organization or an independently wealthy person and ask me, "What's it going to take you to do this full time?" The truth is, who knows. It's a new day and we need a new model. It's not all about helping people financially either. Even though that is very important, a lot of people have the saddest stories and really don't have anybody to turn to. They have no one to ask for help. To be able to feel heard is priceless. To think someone cares enough—who you don't even know—to call, reach out and then write a check or transfer money—it makes people feel good. It's that transaction of getting to know someone that's a game changer.

This must be a ton of work.

I'm not going to lie, I'm extremely exhausted. I've been working over 15 hour days in addition to everything else going on in my life. But I do have a core of volunteers here in Fort Lauderdale— HQ as I call it—and they are amazing, amazing women. Mallory, who is a school teacher, and still teaches every day in Chicago on Zoom, was recently on the morning news talking about us. She works all day then gets on our spreadsheets and starts helping people. She's a hero. All our volunteers are heroes. I do want to say that every volunteer around the world but two are women. Isn't that insane? Not by design. We have one man in Spain and another in El Salvador, but every person who has reached out to help or start a micro community is female. The majority of donors are women too. Not shocking to me, to be honest, because women have such a nurturing quality.

Are you a donor?

I've donated way more than I have or can afford. It's ridiculous at this point. I'm like the saddest sap ever. When people are short on money or it's 11 p.m. at night and I'm going through the sheets and trying to clear out my inbox and a message comes in like "My kids aren't going to be able to eat tomorrow," I'll Venmo that person a $100. I've helped a lot of people. There is a girl in Portland, Oregon who was a college student who has Lupus and every Monday without her even asking, I'll send her money for groceries. One woman is an undocumented worker around Los Angeles and she has three beautiful daughters and I've sent them a ton of stuff from Prime to their house and that helped them tremendously. I've personally given to them, but I've also gotten other donors to give. There is a 16-year-old who found me on Instagram through Debra Messing's posting. Her father died from coronavirus last weekend. She told me that her family couldn't claim his body because they are also undocumented workers and they have no money for cremation or anything. I told her to fill out the form and we found a donor who paid for the cremation and the funeral. People are changing lives every day.

Are there more people who give or more that need help?

We get a ton of people wanting to help from states that seem to be more liberal-minded and a ton of states requesting help that aren't. There is always more people who need. It can be disheartening sometimes to look in your sheets and be like, "I have 500 people who are asking for help and I only have 150 donors, what am I going to do?" The thing is that it ebbs and flows at any given point in time. The ratio across the board, and it doesn't matter what county you are in, what state or what city, for every one donor, we have three people in need. But then we will get a boost, like when Chelsea Handler posts and then we get donors all around the country. Suddenly, we will have no more requests and we have matched everyone. But it's also a double edge sword. You are going to get more people who are requesting help, but then we will also get more micro community leaders and volunteers, which we have in every major city. Getting the word out there is ultimately the most important thing.

I know celebrities like Chelsea Handler and Debra Messing have helped social media-wise. Have any famous people been the donors?

Chelsea and Debra have been donors. Debra, for example, has sent emails to her personal network and recruited a lot of people in the industry like producers, writers, casting directors. She has been such a godsend. Busy Philipps is also the bomb. She has actually been helpful from the very beginning. She also donated money for a flatbed truck to help in our Water Warriors project of supplying water to reservations who have no running water or access to electricity, which is also on our website. I'm friendly with Chelsea and have known her for a couple years. She comes to my meditation retreats. She's so generous and lovely. She's been such a huge help with this. Kristen Bell shared about us in her stories very early on. I'm so grateful.

What story really stands out to you of people helping each other?

There is this New York public school teacher named Shean who was diagnosed during the pandemic with throat cancer. He was randomly partnered up with this woman Beth who is in Hollywood, Florida, so they are worlds apart. She's a Reiki instructor and therapist and has three kids. He is a single dad in the Bronx. His aunt passed away from Covid-19 and his grandma was sick. Well, Beth had thyroid cancer years ago. They talk every day, Facetime and she texts him affirmations every morning. She does therapy sessions with him. She sent him a huge care package with foods that are holistic and perfect for his battle against cancer. He sent me this beautiful, unsolicited email that I received a few days ago. It read: "You saved my life. Pandemic of Love saved my life." I read that email and cried.

What was the most heartfelt connection you've witnessed?

I lost my best friend Helen to ovarian cancer last April. This woman named Susan Patterson who lives in Framingham, MA sent me an email a few weeks ago. She wrote that her organization, Ovations for the Cure, needed money to support women in the late stages of ovarian cancer. She started the organization when her best friend Patty. Then she lost her battle with cancer. After that, all of their events were cancelled from Covid-19, so Susan had no money coming in. She explained that she only had enough money to support these women for the next 30 days. They provide meals for women, clean houses, home care— things insurance doesn't cover that can become stressful. Susan wrote me in desperation because she didn't know what to do. We were able to match $14,000 in two weeks. She is now set for the next 90 days. One of our donors who is a doctor in Miami donated $5,000 and helped a single mom with ovarian cancer and another in her final stages through the organization. Afterward, Susan sent me this heartfelt letter with a bracelet she created when Patty passed away. Teal is the ribbon color for ovarian cancer, so it had a teal heart, a diamond for hope and a charm of a butterfly. I lost it completely when I read the letter. I cried and cried. Before my best friend Helen died, she told me she was going to come back as a butterfly. I never told Susan this. But she explained in the letter that Patty told her that butterflies remind you of people that you love. It was so heartfelt. I can be on the phone with you all week and not be done with these stories.

What is your hope for Pandemic of Love?

Every single day of my life, I want my son who is now 18-years-old, be able to see all this in action. He gets to see a culmination of all these efforts and organizing. We all get to see that one person, one act of kindness, just one act can actually change the world. Nothing is too small. My hope is the concept of mutual aid becomes institutionalized, concreted and supported. I hope it's something we return back to from the nostalgic days—when people actually knew their neighbors, cared, supported and helped each other because that's what we need to be able to survive. I feel like that's going to be a need that we have long after this pandemic ends. If it's not a pandemic, it's a natural disaster. There is always something happening in this really crazy world we are living in. Ultimately, having those structures in place makes it so much easier to get through the hardships that everybody has to face together. I get to go to bed every night feeling good, thinking we all made a dent and made a difference. It's really important. I definitely hope this lasts long after the pandemic.

Have you processed what a difference you've made in this world?

To be honest, in talking to you, I don't realize it. When you are so muddled in it every day matching, putting out fires, answering questions, issues, forging partnerships with tribe members and groups, you don't stop to think about it. One day, I'll be able to sit back and think how cool it is.

Canva Photos, Hawksmoor Manchester

An unwitting server accidentally gave away a nearly $6000 bottle of wine

Ever screw up royally at work? There’s nothing worse than that sinking feeling that comes when you realize you have to fess up to your manager. Next comes the uncertainty over whether you’ll keep your job or not. If your mistake happens to be one that costs your company money, let alone a significant amount of it, the stress is unimaginable.

A server at the Hawksmoor Manchester steakhouse and cocktail bar in England went through that same experience. She accidentally served a customer a £4500 ($5750) bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001 instead of the £260 ($33) Bordeaux they ordered.


wine, red wine, wine glass, vintage wine, fine wine, fine dining, funny restaurant storiesYou have to wonder if normal people can even tell if they're drinking a $6,000 bottle of wine Photo by Jeff Siepman on Unsplash

The server didn't realize the mistake right away. It wasn't until later that a manager clocked the switch, leaving the poor waiter absolutely mortified. It's not every day that a server makes a $5700 mistake! The few that do rarely end up keeping their jobs.

However, the server’s manager decided to handle the situation with grace and humor, posting a lighthearted message on Twitter.

"To the customer who accidentally got given a bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001, which is £4500 on our menu, last night - hope you enjoyed your evening! To the member of staff who accidentally gave it away, chin up! One-off mistakes happen and we love you anyway," they wrote.


The manager even went a step further and excused the mistake by saying the bottles “look pretty similar.”

The post went mega viral, racking up over 53,000 Likes on Twitter/X. Commenters praised management and ownership for letting the server off the hook for an honest mistake.

"As someone who works in hospitality, bless you for being understanding and not flying off the handle at the poor lad/lass."

"Now that’s a good employer! Mistakes do happen, sadly some employees aren’t as forgiving and only see the value of what was lost. I’m certain your understanding and forgiving manner towards the member of your staff will win you more customers!"

"This is such a great way to deal with a member of staff who has made a genuine mistake - great to read about it, well done to the management team & a lot of leaders could learn a thing or two from this story. Thanks for sharing the story."

Working in any kind of customer service, especially food service, is brutally difficult and under-appreciated. These kinds of employees absolutely deserve some grace, so it's heartwarming to see them finally get some.

Other users teased that if this was the kind of service they could expect from the restaurant, they'd be making a reservation ASAP.

"How can I book a table?" someone joked.


Hawksmoor founder Will Beckett later clarified the story to BBC News saying that the server had been working with a manager from another location because it was a busy night. The manager accidentally grabbed the wrong bottle and the customer apparently didn’t notice the mistake. (Sure they didn't.)

Beckett said the server is “brilliant,” but he’s still going to “tease her for this when she stops being so mortified.”


wine, white wine, red wine, fine dining, sommelier, expensive wineAll wine is good wine. Cheers!Giphy

Some users questioned the very nature of a nearly $6000 bottle of wine. To be fair, reviews of the vintage call it "perfection," "luxury," and a "thrilling experience." Still, it can be hard for people to wrap their minds around such extravagance.

"Is no-one else disgusted by the fact that a restaurant charges £4,500 for a bottle of wine in the first place? No wine is worth that much; it's pure & excessive extravagance for the sake of it & I find it vile," a user commented.

Beckett followed up in another post adding that, while the wine was expensive, the restaurant has raised over £1 million ($1.3 million) for the Wood Street Mission children's charity.

This article originally appeared six years ago.

He got way more than he bargained for.

We've all heard of the "cat distribution system," which refers to the idea that cats seemingly "choose" their owners by appearing in people's lives at the right time, as if by some preordained fate. You'll find social media, which already favors cat-related content, awash with stories of folks who were magically bestowed with a feline friend…especially during kitten season, when there's an abundance of teeny tiny fur babies searching for a home.

That’s what happened to Robert Brantley of Louisiana—times 13. This is a story of the cat distribution system on steroids.

Brantley was on his way to work and spotted a tiny white and gray kitten trying to get across the street. Being a kind human, he stopped his car to bring the kitten to safety. But he got more than he bargained for, because as he was scooping up the little thing, several more kitty cat siblings came running out of the nearby grass.

In all, Brantley counted 13 kittens. That's twelve more than he planned on caring for, but he and his family took their roles as cat rescuers seriously. Which is much needed, considering humane societies and shelters are even more over-capacity in need of support from foster families during litter seasons, which starts in early spring and lasts throughout the summer.

In a follow-up video, Brantley's wife donned the cleaned up kitties in their Sunday best to have a photoshoot in her makeshift studio, in hopes that a purrfectly adorable picture would entice potential owners. One kitten could even be seen sporting a bow tie while the others climbed around the enclosure patiently awaiting their turn. Who could resist?

Since making his epic rescue, it looks like all the cats have been rescued, minus one, which they've named Scout. But Brantley is still very much a "kitten wrangler" according to his Instagram. As well as the occasional monkey wrangler, it seems?

May more people take Brantley’s lead to foster the kittens or puppies they find if they have the means. Although, with kittens under 8 weeks old, it is advised to actually leave them be, if found outdoors, as it's likely their mother (who is their best caregiver) is likely nearby. In these circumstances, it's best to wait several hours, or even a full day, to see if the mother returns. She could only be temporarily gone while searching for food, or even waiting for the humans to amscray. One helpful tip from Alleycat.org: sprinkle flour near the kittens’ nest. If the mother cat returns, she will leave paw prints.

Of course, there are times when newborn kittens will in fact need to be taken in and looked after, during which they'll need "round-the-clock care to survive," according to Alleycat.org. If you find yourself in this situation, contact your local shelter to see if they participate in a Wait Until 8 program, which provides tools and instructions, like kitten care kits, to ensure a kitten’s caregiver has everything they need.

The cat distribution system might seems magical (and it is!), but it still requires real effort from us humans.

This article originally appeared two years ago.

A teacher showing her students their grades.

The results from 2024’s National Assessment of Educational Progress found that the slide in American students' reading abilities has only worsened. The percentage of 8th graders with “below basic” reading skills was 33%, the lowest in the exam’s three-decade history. The percentage of fourth graders “below basic” was the largest in 20 years, 40%.

“Our lowest performing students are reading at historically low levels,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which gives the NAEP exam. “We need to stay focused in order to right this ship.”

A big reason for the drop was the disruption in education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but educators are looking to see if there are other causes behind the drop in competency. “This is a major concern — a concern that can’t be blamed solely on the pandemic,” Carr said. “Our nation is facing complex challenges in reading.”

@amber.mariee44

Please give your feedback I can’t tell if this is a good idea or not #teacher #teachersbelike #teachertok #teacherlife #teachersoftiktok #highschool #literacy

Alarmed by the drop in reading scores, a high school teacher named Amber, who goes by @Amber.Maree44 on TikTok, is considering telling her students the grade level in which they read in hopes that it will motivate them and give them a reality check on their performance.

“I'm starting to think that we need to be more straightforward with students about their progress and where they're at academically,” Amber said. "I think they need to know what grade level they're performing at."

Amber’s perspective may also be helpful to parents. A 2023 study found a massive chasm between how parents think their child is performing and how they are compared to grade-level standards. Nearly nine out of ten parents thought their child was at grade level, while about half were below grade level nationally.

students, teachers grades, amber teacher, literacy rates, declining scores, american educationA teacher talking to a student about grades.via Canva/Photos

“I'm hesitant to do this because I know that we don't want students to feel bad about themselves, and I know that we don't know that we don't want to discourage students by showing them their deficits. So I think, for a lot of students, having a real reality check like that where it's like, 'Hey, you're in high school. but it looks like you're reading at a fifth-grade level,' I think some students need that in order to push themselves to actually try in school."

Amber’s suggestion runs counter to some in education who believe that if children are told they are below grade level, it will discourage them from reading. This may further deter their progress, and it is far from an imperfect process to determine where a child is with their reading skills.

students, teachers grades, amber teacher, literacy rates, declining scores, american educationA young girl reading a book in school. via Canva/Photos

Amber believes that a big reason why 54% of adults cannot read at a fifth-grade level is because no one told them, so they don’t know they need help improving their reading skills.

To combat the literacy crisis, Amber was considering having her students take an online literacy test to determine their grade level; she doesn’t need to know the results because she already knows where they are from previous tests. Then, so no student feels singled out, she can have a dialog with her students who have fallen behind about how they can improve their skills. This approach is a happy medium where student learn where they are without being shamed by their teacher and are given some options for enhancing their skills.

kristidjohnsonfam/Instagram

Woman surprised by friends for 50th birthday with stay in her late mom's house.

Childhood friendships can never be replicated. Years of memories and going through the highs and lows of life together create an irreplaceable bond.

And Instagrammer Kristi Johnson (@kristijohnsonfam) is lucky to have the same group of friends since she was in 7th grade. To celebrate her 50th birthday, they rallied around her and gave her the surprise of a lifetime–a weekend stay in her mom's old house, who passed away from cancer in 2021.

"That time I turned 50 and my mom had died of cancer...so my childhood friends did the most thoughtful thing...they reserved my mom's ACTUAL house for us to stay in for my bday weekend," she wrote in the video's caption.

In the video, Kristi shares an image of her mom at the house from 2021 before she passed away from cancer. Fast forward to 2025, the home has been re-painted and re-done as an Airbnb property.

"My sister has turned our Mom's house into an Airbnb and WE would be the very first guests," she wrote, showing off the home's interior. A highlight is a stunning portrait photograph of her mom during her younger years that hangs on a wall in the living room in her memory.

She continues, "All my friends arrived to to spend the weekend at my mom's house...just like we used to." As she films, her friends come streaming into the home for her special birthday weekend. Kristi shares some throwback photos of herself with her girlfriends, one from a school dance from 1992 and another group cheerleading picture from 1986.

"I've had the same friends since 7th grade and they thought of everything for my 50th birthday," she writes as a photo of herself posing in front of the home is shown. "They had all our favorite childhood snacks at my party weekend. They had bday crowns and tiaras for me. We haven't changed a bit."

And viewers loved the wholesome video. "You are the richest woman in the world surrounded by all that love♥️❤️♥️," one wrote. Another commented, "OMG! I would have fell out crying every time a friend came through the door they would have had to pick my up from the floor. This is beautiful ♥️." And another added, "I’d watch this feel good movie 🥹♥️." And another viewer wrote, "You are blessed to experience such lifelong supportive friendships spanning over 4 decades."

Kristi has shared more about her mom in a number of other videos. She was a selfless woman who was determined to make it to her 70th birthday--which she did, celebrating the milestone on January 1, 2021. Her mom was also incredibly kind and caring. In another video, she shared that during her cancer battle, she encouraged Kristi to get a knee surgery she had been putting off just so she could help take care of her afterwards.

"She slept in a chair beside me at night. She cleaned and cooked for two whole days despite her own pain," she shared. "I snapped pictures of her, fearing it would be the last time she stayed at my house."

Unfortunately, it was. "She was gone a few months later," she added. In her honor, her family threw her a party rather than a traditional funeral. "We covered an event hall with all her beautiful pictures and all her art she created. I used all my mom's recipes and made all her favorite foods she was known for. She taught us to care for others...hope we are making her proud."

Pop Culture

16 sounds that send Gen Xers and boomers down memory lane and young people don't recognize

From the purr of a rotary phone to the "ka-chunk" of manual credit card machines, so many sounds have disappeared.

Who remembers these sounds?

When we conjure up memories from our past, we usually see them as images or pictures, perhaps even as reels in our minds. But visual memories are only part of our recall. Anyone who's tasted a long-forgotten meal or smelled a loved one's perfume or heard a specific song and been sent straight back to another time knows how all of our senses play a role in memory.

Other than music, may not think of sounds as particularly memory triggering, but when someone asked Gen Xers and boomers what sounds were commonplace when they were younger that we don't hear anymore, it became clear that they are. Most of probably don't think of these things often, but seeing a whole list of outdated sounds quickly sends those of a certain age straight down memory lane.

For instance:

VHS tapes rewinding

You physically went to Blockbuster. You rented a movie on VHS. You watched it. Then you had to "Be Kind, Rewind" before returning the movie, and that sound of the tape rewinding is a totally distinctive sound. Some people even had machines that were just for rewinding tapes at a faster speed than the VHS player.

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Dial tones and busy signals

The first time one of my Gen Z kids picked up a landline phone and heard the dial tone, they jumped and said, "Ah, why is the phone yelling at me?!" And playing the sound of a busy signal totally creeps them out—"That so eerie!" But back in the day, these sounds were just a normal part of making phone calls. In fact, it took us older folks a while to get used to not having a dial tone on our cell phones.

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The purr of a rotary phone dialing

There was something so soothing about the sound of dialing a phone number on a rotary phone. Everyone hated when a phone number had a lot of zeroes in it, simply because it took so long to dial, but oh was it satisfying to hear the purr of the wheel as it wound back.

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Sonic booms and cars backfiring

It wasn't unusual to hear what sounded like a big explosion or what sounded like gunfire back in the day. When the goal in aviation was to get faster and faster, it became common for supersonic flights to break the sound barrier, creating what's known as a sonic boom. However, supersonic flight has been banned over land in many countries for decades, so it's not a common occurrence anymore.


@cleoabram

Sonic booms dont work like many people think... As any plane flies, it pushes air out of its path, creating pressure waves. When a plane flies FASTER than sound, the air molecules get compressed into bigger shock waves which our brain processes as a loud BOOM. But a common misconception is: That boom doesn’t just happen once when the plane hits that speed. It boooooooooms the whole time, along the entire path of the plane. That booooooooom is the reason supersonic flight is banned over many countries today. But now, NASA is trying to build a quieter plane and bring back supersonic flight. We got to go see it, and you can watch our longer episode about what we saw... This video is part of our show Huge If True. If you like optimistic science and tech stories, follow for more. #tech #supersonic #plane #airplane #animation #NASA #fast #stem

Cars rarely backfire anymore, either, due to advances in car manufacturing.

Dial-up internet modem squawks

Nothing was more futuristic sounding than dialing into the internet in the early 90s, but it quickly became antiquated with the advent of broadband internet. But that little slice of time when dial-up internet was all we had left a distinct sound memory in all of our psyches.

It's an almost impossible sound to imitate accurately, but we all recognize it when we hear it. (And yes, kids, it was always this annoying.)

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Manual credit card machines

"Cha-CHUNK." Ah, the days before electronic credit card swiping, when cashiers had to pull out the manual credit card processor, set the credit card in it, put the carbon paper on top, and then "Cha-CHUNK."

Everyone who has memories from the 90s and before can attest to remembering that sound.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Coins falling into a payphone or a toll booth

A payphone, children, was a telephone that was out in public where you could insert some coins and to make a phone call. Or, if you didn't have any coins, you could call "collect," meaning that the person who received the phone call had to agree to pay the charges on their phone bill. (Calling collect was a desperate move, by the way, totally uncool.) But the sound of the coins falling down into the telephone is still clear in many of our minds.

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Same thing with a toll booth if you happened to live in an area of the country where tollways were or are a thing. Today tolls are almost all processed with digital passes, but it used to be that you had to drive through an actual tollbooth and toss your coins into a machine, with the clinking sound of the coins as they hit the metal bowl.

Emergency Broadcast System tests

These may still happen some places, but with streaming services, not many of us watch regular television or listen to the actual radio anymore. When those were our only choices, we were regularly interrupted by such tests.

"This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test." BEEEEEEEP. And if you happen to turn on the TV during the beep, you questioned whether or not you were actually in the middle of an emergency until it was over and they repeated the announcement that "This was only a test."

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Typewriter carriages returning

Even when typewriters were the norm, there was something uniquely satisfying in the sound of someone typing. Modern keyboards still offer some semblance of that soothing clickity-clickity-click, but one thing that's missing from the typewriter era is the sound of reaching the end of a line, hearing the "ding," and then returning to the typewriter carriage to the left side of the page.

This video will bring back some memories:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Dot matrix printers

Apparently, many young people don't even have printers these days, but modern printers are so much quieter than the printers we used back in the 80s. It was a pretty big deal to be able to print anything at home, so we didn't complain too much (having nothing else to compare it to) but looking back, those dot matrix printers were extraordinarily loud and annoying. And slow. If you had a long paper to print, you were going to wait a while.

Still a fun little nostalgia trip to hear one, though.

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Manual pencil sharpeners

In the age of electric pencil sharpeners, most kids don't know the satisfaction of using a heavy duty, mounted metal pencil sharpener that felt like it was made to last for generations. Those things could probably survive a nuclear blast, for real.

Remember the sound of the grinding as you turned the crank? They just don't make them like they used to.

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Film projectors

Few things will send a Gen Xer or boomer back to their school days like the sound of a film projector. When that machine came out, we knew we were going to be subjected to some kind of 1960s learnin' and the sound of the projector is almost enough to lull us to sleep even today.

When the film was finished and the tail of the film flipped around and around in the machine until the teacher turned it off? Classic sound none of us can forget.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Television "static"

Much like the dial tone, kids these days don't know what it's like to turn on the TV or change the channel and be met with "static" or "fuzz." It's the worst sound ever, really. And it was made worse with the film "Poltergeist" of course.

In fact, there's now a whole genre young people are into called "analog horror" that draws from sounds like those in this list to create a sense of creepiness. Who knew our normal life sounds would someday be considered scary?

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What other sounds would you add to this list?