When Amy Kavelaras from Columbus, Ohio, encouraged her grandma to try on her old wedding dress again, she couldn’t have expected what would come with it.
Amy thought that it would be a good way to cheer up her grandma and a wholesome story to share. Now everyone on the Internet is raving about the picture she took, and it is for a good reason.
Amy Kavelaras was a bubbly and joyful person. Not only did she happily do the most at her main job as a flight attendant while also juggling two other side jobs.
She also lived with the purpose of making the lives of everyone around her a little bit better and happier. These are some examples of how she tried to do that:
For instance, one of her hobbies was dressing up as one of the princesses from the Disney movies and attending children’s birthday parties as an entertainer.
That’s right: Amy just loved to see the people around her happy. And this included her family; she loved to spend time around them and never forgot to do her best to take care of them and cheer them up during hard times.
And especially, she loved her grandma, Ruth. She had been a very strong and supportive presence during her whole life, and the two women shared a very special bond.
They also shared a cheerful and joyful character and a passion for life. However, things hadn’t been easy for Ruth during the last few years.
Ruth’s husband had passed away 7 years ago. Since then, Amy’s grandma still tried to keep up her zest for life, which had always made her different from other seniors.
But it hasn’t been easy. She still thought about her husband every day of her life. He had been her everything; her best friend, the best companion she could have asked for. And that wasn’t all.
Age had also begun to take a toll on Ruth. It got to a point where she was having a hard time just taking care of herself. At first, the family hired a girl to help her around the house.
But it wasn’t enough. Even if her cognitive functions remained healthy, it was hard for her to stay by herself at the house where she had been living with her deceased husband for her whole life. So there was only one option left.
After long conversations between Amy, her mom, and her grandma, they all concluded that the best choice would be for Ruth to move into an assisted living facility.
With the company of other seniors and the help of the staff, it would be easy for Ruth to get through the day. Or so Amy thought.
But first, they had to get everything ready for Ruth to move out of her house. One day, Amy was searching around the attic, trying to see if there was anything there that Ruth may like to take with her to the retirement community.
Almost hidden in one corner of the attic, there was a big box covered in dust. Curious about what could be inside, Amy opened it, and she found something that opened her eyes wide and brought a smile to her face.
Inside that box, there were two things: Ruth’s old wedding dress from 70 years ago and a picture of her with her husband on the day of the ceremony.
Would Ruth even remember that she kept those in her attic? Amy thought about showing them to her. It would surely cheer her up to remember the day of her wedding. But then she came up with another idea.
When she showed Ruth what she had found in the attic, instantly, a wide smile lightened her face. Then, Amy suggested that she tried it on to see how it looked on her after all those years.
And so Ruth did. It brought her a lot of memories. It seemed like only yesterday she was standing at the altar, looking into her husband’s eyes. Amy saw her so happy that she thought of taking a picture of the moment.
At first, Ruth was a little bit hesitant. But soon enough, she was excited about the idea. So they took a picture of her wearing her wedding gown and holding the old photograph with her husband.
Then, they posted it on social media so everyone could see it. The picture went viral in just a few days, and people commented on one specific detail of the image.
When one first looks at the picture that Amy’s mom took of Ruth, the first thing one notices is her wide smile and how happy she looks. But if you take a closer look, you’ll probably see something else.
Amy’s mom’s reflection is visible in the glass frame! This was probably not originally intended by Amy, her mom, or her grandma. Still, it made an impression on people who saw the picture.
Some found it a little bit uncanny and even creepy, comparing Amy’s mom’s reflection to a ghost; while others saw it as a wholesome representation of two different generations, mom and daughter, in one picture.
Some even thought that Ruth’s daughter kind of looked like her younger self that was seen in the picture with her husband.
In any case, the three women (that is, Ruth, her daughter, and her granddaughter Amy) were amazed at how the picture was received when they posted it on the Internet.
It was shared on the Facebook page ‘Love What Matters’, where more than 26,000 users (and counting) have liked it so far! Those are numbers that Amy didn’t expect at all.
The finding, the taking of the picture, and how people on the Internet received it were things that truly made Ruth’s day.
Today, she’s happy at the retirement community, where Amy and her mom go to visit her regularly. She keeps the wedding dress and the photograph with her husband in her room and looks at them when she wants to take a little stroll down memory lane.
