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Children of divorce are sobbing over woman's final 9-second video of mom and dad together

"Soulmates doesn't always mean married mates."

Canva Photos

A 9-second video of a woman's divorced parents' last interaction is incredibly powerful.

The statistics around divorce in America sound grim. About half of couples who tie the knot won't make it, and that's generally considered to be a bad thing in the popular discourse; a sign of too much infidelity, poor communication, and other toxic behavior. But what those numbers fail to tell you about is all the couples who split amicably, or who were never the right fit for each other in the first place. In fact, it's possible–and even common—for people to divorce after many years together and still love each other deeply.

That's exactly the sentiment captured in a beautiful nine-second video filmed by Kerrian Connelly Carro.

divorce, marriage, children of divorce, parenting, love, love stories, wedding, viral videos, deathThe statistics around divorce don't always tell the full story. Photo by Zoriana Stakhniv on Unsplash

Carro captioned the short clip posted to TikTok: "My parents were divorced over 25 years ago. Met at 12, had me at 19. This was their last video together before my father passed away."

In an interview with Newsweek, Carro explains that the two were finishing up a quick visit with her mom after her dad attended a session of radiation therapy for cancer. Carro filmed the interaction between the two, not knowing for sure that it would be the last time they'd ever see each other.

So much is communicated between the two in just a few seconds of silent footage. They share a loving hug before Carro's mom kisses him on the cheek. She then cinches up his jacket, as if to give him strength to keep on fighting. He pinches her cheeks lovingly and smiles as he turns to leave. And that's the end.

Carro's father would pass away shortly after the video was taken.

Watch the touching moment here:

@kerriannconnellycarro

#myparents #ifiwouldhaveknown #deaddadsclub #grief #griefjourney

Carro said that her parents' divorce wasn't always easy.

The love between the two is incredibly obvious even from just a short video, but the journey that came before was far from sunshine and roses. In the interview, Carro says her mom was the love of her dad's life, and it took him a long time to recover from the breakup. She says the two argued for years after splitting, both angry and trying to find a new path in life for themselves.

But eventually, they made peace with not being together, and their love for each other took over. Carro says they became friends again, supporting each other. And you can see it all come to fruition in their final interaction. The video struck a nerve in viewers everywhere, racking up over 18 million views. Commenters were incredibly moved:

"Like that quote 'even though you didn’t make it to the end of my story, I’ll always have the corner folded down on your page as it was one of my favourites.'"

"Soul mates don’t always mean married mates."

"The way she straightened his jacket, and the way he pinched her cheeks tells me everything I need to know about their love."

"Divorce doesn't mean hate. This is proof of that."

People who had experience living with divorce were especially touched:

divorce, marriage, children of divorce, parenting, love, love stories, wedding, viral videos, deathOne commenter said that soulmates don't always have to be "married-mates." Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

"My parents were better friends than partners."

"Divorced parents here, but they are still BEST FRIENDS. My dad still helps her with house maintenance and visits her once a week to check in. Soul mates aren’t always married mates!"

"My mom's funeral was the only one I ever saw my dad cry at. They were friends much longer than they were married."

About a third of divorces these days are categorized as friendly or at least neutral, rather than hostile. And even in the cases of more contentious separations, many of them just take a little time until the two people remember what they liked and even loved about each other in the first place.

It's rare for people to get married without a strong connection and bond. Disagreements and life circumstances can get in the way and cloud our feelings, and even make reconciliation impossible, but it's amazing to see the proof in Carro's video that that love doesn't always die out.

The video is also a powerful reminder that divorce isn't some great failure. Sometimes it's exactly what both parties need, even if it hurts.

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Family

'Alone Australia' winner beautifully describes her grief after losing 3-year-old to cancer

"Death is a doorway…"

The Imperfect Podcast/Instagram (courtesy of Gina Chick @gigiamazonia)

Gina Chick shares her grief journey on The Imperfect Podcast.

Losing a child is every parent's worst fear, one that most of us don't dare try to imagine. But it happens, and there's wisdom in listening to those who have experienced it rather than avoiding the subject altogether. Everyone's grief journey is different, of course, and bereaved parents may be at any phase of that journey at any given time, but it's enlightening to hear from someone who's traveled far enough down their own path of grief to be able to reflect and put into words how it's affected them.

Australian author and Alone Australia winner Gina Chick is one of those people. She lost her three-year-old daughter Blaise to cancer 10 years ago and shares what coming to terms with that loss has been like for her.

"Having and losing Blaise has given me the resilience to dance with life in ways I never would have imagined," Chick wrote for ABC Australia in 2023. "Dancing with grief over the past decade has taught me how to be with what is, rather than what I wish could be. Or should be. It's taught me to turn a challenge inside out to find the blessing in the lesson."

Chick, who spent 67 days alone in the Tasmanian wilderness to win on Alone, was a guest onThe Imperfect Podcast.. When the host asked her what it's like to lose a child, her response was just beautiful.

"I can't say what it's like to lose a child, but I can say what it's like to lose mine," she said. "The actual losing part, death, is such a doorway. And a body without someone in it is like, oh, like I understood life by having my daughter not have it in her body anymore."

"It was such a visceral and profound experience. To be able to midwife her out of life with the same presence that we brought her in was beautiful," she said. "And I said yes. I said yes to the grief. I said yes to that journey. And it meant that whenever I was grieving, I just went with it."

Chick explains that she has expressed her grief in every possible way, which is what makes her able to talk about it so calmly now.

"I can honestly say that having her was the greatest gift of my life, and losing her was the second greatest gift of my life," she said. "Because of her and because of losing her, I am stronger, I am calmer, I have more presence, I have more ability to hold people, I have more compassion. I'm a much better human. And the gift of her leaving is a gift that I walk around with every day, so every person who I touch or speak to, that's her. So, it's like her gift is me in the world, or me in the world is her gift."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

People were deeply moved by her answer.

"I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything this profound and beautiful and brutal and uplifting."

"Beautiful words ❤️ I feel this very much! I lost my angel daughter 14 months ago."

"I'm stunned by this post that I just found while randomly scrolling. Your words have spoken what I have felt in my heart, but can rarely verbalise accurately. Kissing my son's forehead while he laid on the mortuary bench, I've never shaken off the knowing that even though I was holding and kissing him, *he* wasn't there. Also, I rarely say this, but perversely, his loss was the greatest gift I've ever had. His loss taught me about love and humanity in a way that I would never have learned in an entire lifetime of living. Thank you for this wonderful post. You've touched the heart of a stranger in Ireland with this, and I am grateful to you for it."

"Wow. this woman is the embodiment of what it is to be able to appreciate the depth of tragedy, sit with it, process it, and come out on the other side with having your understanding transformed without your heart being hardened. It's such a rare thing to be able to witness - thank you for sharing!"

grief, death, loss, gina chick, aloneGrieving the loss of a loved one is uniquely personal.Photo credit: Canva

Many people who have lost children or other close loved ones shared that Chick's words brought them a sense of peace. But the writer had more to say, adding additional commentary to her video after thousands of people responded.

"I’d like to add something, for anyone who is going through deep loss and has been touched or triggered by this reel…

Losing someone who is woven into your cells, your being, your entire life, is something I would never want anyone to feel. And yet, so many of us are here. Feeling the unfeelable. Accepting the unacceptable. Thinking the unthinkable. Bearing the unbearable.

I do not for one second think or say my journey is like anyone else’s. Grief is as individual as a fingerprint. A heart print. We all do the best we can with what we have. Sometimes hopeless, sometimes numb, sometimes rage full, sometimes graceful, mostly graceless and clumsy and awful. Often all of these in one day. Hanging on by our fingernails. One day at a time.

In this clip I’ve spoken only about my journey and lessons. I don’t presume for a heartbeat that anyone else will have the same response. Grief has its own mystery.

For me, part of my journey has been a gradual acceptance of the gifts of grief. Grief is the flipside of the coin of love. The size of our grief is the size of our love for that which has been lost. That’s how big the pain is.

grief, love, grieving losing a loved one, losing a child, gina chick"Grief is the flipside of the coin of love." - Gina ChickPhoto credit: Canva

Leaning into it has brought me solace. For others it may be the opposite. Whatever gets us through, that’s all that matters.

We live in a culture that has lost its rituals and ceremonies. We don’t have a roadmap for grief.
People don’t know what to say to us. We can feel alone and lost.

I send deepest love and respect to anyone on this path of raw pure pain and loss, however it looks. I can’t know your individual flavour of pain, but I send you love, and I say I see you, and this sucks so hard, and I’m sorry you’re going through this, and I hope you find some peace, somewhere, in the storm.

The gifts I’ve discovered here for myself are wrought in blood and anguish. I’ve collected them slowly, and they give me stepping stones through my grief. But I would be horrified to think anyone would compare their own process and think this is right or wrong. It’s just my way. Every path is the right one, because it’s ours.

grief, grief journey, path of healing, losing a loved one, gina chick"Every path is the right one, because it’s ours." - Gina ChickPhoto credit: Canva

I urge everyone on this thread to treat each other’s paths and hearts with exquisite kindness. The pain of losing someone who is part of you is indescribable.

Let’s hold each other with tenderness and compassion, and be each other’s lights in the dark."

You can find more of Gina's grief journey in her book, We Are the Stars: A misfit's story of love, connection and the glorious power of letting go on her website ginachick.com. And you can find her full interview on The Imperfect Podcast.

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Health

Ryan Reynolds got a colonoscopy after losing a bet and found a lifesaving surprise

Only 60% of men over 50 are getting regular colonoscopies. Reynolds just proved why they're important.

Ryan Reynolds/YouTube
Ryan Reynolds filmed his colonoscopy after losing a bet—it turned out to be 'lifesaving'

Cancer is serious. Ryan Reynolds is not. Luckily his characteristic sense of humor—along with being true to his word—has helped shine a light on a sobering topic in a fun way. First, he made a friendly bet with his Welcome to Wrexham co-star Rob McElhenney of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia with whom he also co-owns the Welsh football club Wrexham A.F.C.

The bet? That McElhenney would not be able to learn Welsh, the official language of Wales, where their soccer team is located. The stakes? If Reynolds lost, he'd have to get a colonoscopy... and post the entire thing to YouTube. About 30 seconds into a YouTube upload titled "Rob & Ryan Lead From Behind," McElhenney begins speaking in near-fluent Welsh.

Uh-oh. Colonoscopy it is.


Butt jokes galore in Ryan Reynolds' DeadpoolGiphy

Reynolds is an actor famous for hilarious hijinks. From his intense fictional feud with Hugh Jackman to performing epic pranks on talk shows, he is often the best thing on the internet for a good laugh. However, he is also not one to shy away from difficult conversations, particularly when it comes to health. So raising awareness about the importance of colonoscopies was, as he quipped, “enough motivation for me to let you in on a camera being shoved up my ass.”

Reynolds might have lost the bet, but his actions paid off. The procedure turned out to be lifesaving.

The video shows the Free Guy and Deadpool actor entering the hospital early in the morning, discussing the procedure with the doctor (with just the perfect amount of gallows humor), and being wheeled into the exam room. Reynolds notes that this will be his first colonoscopy.

As Reynolds begins waking up after the roughly 25-minute procedure, the doctor delivers the news that an “extremely subtle” polyp was discovered and cut out. A polyp is a small abnormal growth of tissue that is often benign but can develop into something much scarier if not detected. Reynolds had previously shown no symptoms.

“I’m not being overly dramatic,” his doctor told him. “This is exactly why you do this. You are interrupting the natural history of a disease, of something of a process that could have ended up developing into cancer and causing all sorts of problems. Instead, you are not only diagnosing the polyp, you are taking it out.”

Watch the whole video here:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Ever the expert marketer, Reynolds smoothly slid in a quick plug for his alcohol brand, joking that “I can’t believe you pumped all that Aviation Gin into my IV. I was out like a light” before thanking the doctor.

Reynolds got his colonoscopy at 45, which is the recommended age to begin routine screenings. Though it’s a preventable cancer, colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths for men and women combined, and it is predicted to be the top cancer killer for people under 50 by the year 2030.

Because of the inherent invasiveness of the procedure, many people feel uncomfortable even talking about colonoscopies, let alone getting one, despite early detection being so vital. A colonoscopy involves the patient being sedated while a long tube is inserted into the rectum, which allows a small video camera to explore the colon and look for cancer or other abnormalities.

ryan reynolds, wrexham, celebrities, psa, public service announcement, mens health, aging, colonoscopyRyan Reynolds shows we shouldn't be scared of a camera "up our ass"Giphy

Some estimates say only about 60% of men over the age of 50 are following the screening guidelines, with men notoriously being afraid of feeling vulnerable in front of a doctor and also correlating the colonoscopy procedure with a certain sex act. Yes, sadly that's a real fear that has been studied and documented. You'd think not dying of cancer would be more important, but welcome to toxic masculinity.

In a show of good faith and education, McElhenney got a colonoscopy as well for the project, and took a strange pride in having more benign polyps than Reynolds did.

rob mcelhenney, welcome to wrexam, always sunny in philadelphia, ryan reynolds, mens healthRob loves it.Giphy

Now, thanks to Reynolds and McElhenney hilariously riffing on their experience and normalizing it, the whole thing might not seem so daunting after all. If a true Marvel superhero can get his regular health screenings, the rest of us should definitely fall in line.

Thanks for the delightfully silly PSA, Ryan.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Joy

Friends surprise woman with unforgettable 50th birthday weekend in her late mom's house

"I’d watch this feel good movie 🥹♥️."

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."

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