Viral video of two sisters in their 90s uniting to say goodbye to one another is sure to make a grown man cry

A sisterly bond that has lasted nearly a century proved stronger than distance and time when 94-year-old Barbara Carolan traveled more than 2,700 miles from Seabrook, New Hampshire, to Nevada to see her 90-year-old sister, Shirley, one more time. The sisters had been apart since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic kept them from seeing each other. But Barbara knew she couldn’t wait any longer. "She said, 'I really think this will be the last time I see my sister,'" Barbara’s granddaughter, Stephanie Atkinson Shivley, told WMUR. Determined to reunite, Barbara made the trip with Shively by her side to document the moment. Shively shared the video on her TikTok page @stephanieatkinson.

On the night before Barbara had to leave, she and Shirley had an emotional conversation. In the video, Shirley can be seen holding her sister’s hands, saying, "We’re going to see each other again. If we don’t see each other on this earth, we’ll see you in heaven." Barbara, overwhelmed with emotion, could barely speak through her tears. She replied, "You betcha—you betcha." Then, the two reminisced about their lives together. "But we did, we had a wonderful, wonderful life," Barbara told Shirley. Shirley wasn’t ready for a goodbye. She pleaded, "Don’t say goodbye!" Barbara reassured her, "I’m not going to! There’s no way I’m going to say goodbye to you." At the end of the video, Shirley shared one last message with Barbara: "Until we meet again."

The video, a moment originally filmed just for family, went viral, bringing people to tears across the internet. @keepitneon said, "Omg, I couldn’t imagine saying goodbye to my sister for the last time this is so intense." @isla_the_healer shared, "Crying because my grandma is doing this with her sister right now. What good lives they've lived." @little_bit24 wrote, "I’m in tears! It just made me think of my brother & me. I’d be the one completely sobbing & he’d be consoling me scared shitless." @ciaraburger commented, "My grandpa recently passed but a week before that, his brother came to visit and they said bye at the airport like they knew it was the last time." @jetbackroom added, "I used to not care about where my life went, but now all I want is the privilege of growing old with the people I love and sitting together and saying."

Reflecting on the moment, Shivley shared, "They waited so long to see each other and if you don’t know if you’re going to see someone again—you know, especially siblings—it must be really hard." As more people shared their own experiences and emotions in the comments, Atkinson Shivley said that Barbara and Shirley were stunned by the reaction. "Especially with how crazy the world can get, just to see the happiness that’s bringing," Shively told WMUR. But perhaps the biggest takeaway was the reminder that time with loved ones is never guaranteed. "What if this was your last time to see your loved one? Are you telling them the things that you want to tell them, or you’re saying the things that you want to say?" Atkinson Shivley asked. "Because if you’re not, you may not get a chance again." 

You can follow Stephanie Atkinson Shivley (@stephanieatkinson) on TikTok for more daily life content.