+
upworthy
Most Shared

Pics of these unlikely friends meeting for the first time have blown up the internet.

If you saw Spencer Sleyon and Rosalind “Roz” Guttman walking down the street together, you probably wouldn't assume they're BFFs.

Make no mistake, however. Sleyon, a 22-year-old rapper who lives in Harlem, and Guttman, an 81-year-old who lives in Florida, really are two peas in a pod.

And on Dec. 1, they finally got to meet in person.

Photos by Amy Butler, with permission.


Their unlikely friendship started in the summer of 2016.

Sleyon and Guttman met while facing off on Words with Friends, a Scrabble-like game people can play on their phones against strangers near and far. They both enjoyed playing one another, Sleyon explains, so it was only a matter of time before they were both knocking out several rounds every day.

Because the game is connected through Facebook, both Sleyon and Guttman knew who they were competing against and soon began chatting online. Before long, the conversation turned from the game to things happening in the real world.

“2016 was such a big year for politics and hurricanes — stuff like that," Sleyon says of the types of topics they'd discuss, noting he'd also chat with her about his music. "We talked about literally just anything.”

When Sleyon got particularly busy last year, however, he had to get rid of the app.

“I told her, 'my life is pretty busy right now, I don’t have time to play every day consistently,'" Sleyon says of saying goodbye. "'But if there was some advice you could give me about life, what would it be?' And she told me, 'Always reach for the stars.'”

The inspiring message stuck with him.

Months later, he decided to download the app again, after life got a little less hectic. It was then that his friend's mom, Amy Butler — senior minister at NYC's Riverside Church — learned about Sleyon's interstate friendship.

“I was telling Pastor Amy [about Guttman], and she couldn’t believe it," Sleyon says. "She wanted to write a sermon on it.”

A few weeks after that, Butler surprised Sleyon with a trip to Florida to finally meet Guttman in person.

And, as the pics show, their meeting did not disappoint.

“She was awesome," Sleyon says of finally getting to meet Guttman. "I’ve worked in grocery stores and stuff, so I’ve been friendly with older people in person. And that ’s honestly what it felt like — like I just saw someone from the neighborhood. That’s why I was really happy.”

“It ended up becoming a true friendship.”

After Sleyon tweeted about the experience, the internet went wild.

In just a few days, the photos of Guttman and Sleyon received over one million likes and over 230,000 retweets.

Even Frank Gibeau, the CEO of Zynga, the developer of Words with Friends, heard about Sleyon and Guttman's friendship: “Spencer and Roz’s story is a wonderful illustration of how powerful games can be in bringing people together across generations and geographies," he said in a statement.  

The tweet's thread is filled with moving messages, too, reflecting how much seeing the photos and learning Sleyon's story has meant to so many people.

"This is the kinda thing I wanna see in America," one user wrote. "Not the negative stuff that’s talked about on a daily basis."

Sleyon's not exactly sure why the photos have spread so far and wide, but he believes seeing people from very different walks of life befriending one another has something to do with it.

“The state our country is in right now — there’s a huge racial divide," he explains. "I saw a lot of people saying they needed a story like this."

For now, he's just grateful his story is putting smiles on faces.

“For 81, I’ll tell you, she’s full of life," Sleyon says. "I can only say positive things about her.”

Family

Mom calls out teacher who gave her son a 'zero' grade for not providing class with supplies

Her viral video sparked a debate as to whether or not providing school supplies should be mandatory for parents.

@shanittanicole/TikTok

A zero grade for not providing school supplies?

The debate as to whether or not parents should supply classroom supplies is not new. But as prices continue to rise, parents are growing more baffled as to how they can be expected by teachers to provide all the various glue sticks, colored pencils, rulers and other various items the incoming students might need.

What’s even more perplexing, however, is penalizing the children of parents who won’t (or can’t) provide them.

This was the case for Shanitta Nicole, who discovered her son received a zero grade in his new school for not bringing school supplies for the entire classroom.
Keep ReadingShow less
Identity

Neo-Nazis slowly realize this small town totally punked them

Local residents came together to fight Nazis a hilariously perfect way.

Image from YouTube video.

Neo-Nazis parade.

In preparation for an upcoming neo-Nazi march in the small Bavarian town of Wunsiedel, local residents decided to fight back in a hilariously perfect way: by sponsoring each of the 250 fascist participants.

According to Heeb Magazine, "For every metre they walked, €10 went to a programme called EXIT Deutschland, which helps people escape extremist groups."

Keep ReadingShow less


Time travel back to 1905.

Back in 1905, a book called "The Apples of New York" was published by the New York State Department of Agriculture. It featured hundreds of apple varieties of all shapes, colors, and sizes, including Thomas Jefferson's personal favorite, the Esopus Spitzenburg.






Keep ReadingShow less
Identity

When a man asks people to translate a hate message he's received, their response is unforgettable

Reading the words would be one thing. Having to think about what they mean is almost too intense.


As part of an experiment, a man asks for help translating a Facebook message he has received.

There's a man in Lithuania who speaks only English. The message is in Lithuanian. He can't read it, so he asks some locals to translate it for him.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

A viral photo of a calm dad and a screaming toddler holds an important parenting lesson

He exemplified patient parenting when his daughter started having a meltdown at the store.

Actor Justin Baldoni exemplified patient parenting when his daughter had a meltdown at the store.


Young kids don't always pick the best times to have emotional meltdowns.

Just ask any parent.

Grocery stores, malls, and restaurants (or any place with lots of people around) in particular seem to bring out the worst in our little ones, prompting explosive tantrums that can make even the most stoic parent turn red-faced with embarrassment.

But why be embarrassed? It's just kids being kids, after all.

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

A teen student delivered a masterclass on the true history of the Confederate flag

Christopher Justice broke it down into incredible details most of us probably weren't even aware of.

Six years ago, a high school student named Christopher Justice eloquently explained the multiple problems with flying the Confederate flag. A video clip of Justice's truth bomb has made the viral rounds a few times since then, and here it is once again getting the attention it deserves.

Justice doesn't just explain why the flag is seen as a symbol of racism. He also explains the history of when the flag originated and why flying a Confederate flag makes no sense for people who claim to be loyal Americans.

But that clip, as great as it is, is a small part of the whole story. Knowing how the discussion came about and seeing the full debate in context is even more impressive.

Keep ReadingShow less