Rylee Mennie arrived on time for dinner at her grandparents’ house. The other four grandchildren, invited just like her, simply didn’t show up.
In the video she uploaded to TikTok, her grandparents can be seen cooking a lasagna for five people, with the joy of someone expecting to bring the whole family together. When the hours passed and no one else knocked on the door, they began putting the leftover food into Ziploc bags, one by one, as if they still hoped the others would arrive. Rylee filmed her grandmother pretending to cry in front of the camera, but anyone who has seen the video knows that behind the joke was real sadness.
“My grandparents taught me unconditional love. They have been there for every game, every event, every holiday”, she later wrote. “My goal in life is to grow old alongside the love of my life and be the kind of grandparents they are.” They say that at the next dinner, all five grandchildren showed up.