Francisco is 11 years old and lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
That day, he saw his mom, Paula Lopes, come home dragging the exhaustion of a long day at work. He said nothing. He put on a chef’s apron, covered his hair with a chef’s hat, and went into the kitchen by himself. When Paula arrived, the table was already set: rice, fried chicken, and freshly served orange juice. He imposed just one condition for them to have dinner together: no cell phones on the table.
Paula recorded the moment and uploaded it to her Instagram, @paulalopess3. The video reached 3,9 million views and moved thousands of people. The next day, motivated by all the affection he had received, Francisco returned to the kitchen, this time accompanied by his siblings, to surprise his mom again. In the video’s description, Paula wrote that she hopes her son knows how precious life is because he is in the world.