‘I’m just lucky – it’s a really nice moment I got to share’
IT was the moment when the ultra-personal went international. A delightful and moving reversal of expectations.
The tattooed young guy in the snapback cap and black singlet dancing to the Lukas Graham song 7 Years with his great-nan, a 93-year-old in spectacles and flannel nightie.
A year ago, Jarryd Stoneman’s video triggered a viewing frenzy. His personal page became a popular ongoing record of his life as a caregiver for Katie Thomas, who had dementia, on the Kapiti Coast, north of Wellington.
Thomas passed away on Friday. Stoneman posted on Facebook: ‘‘My best friend has finally decided it’s time to leave us’’, adding that he would forever treasure the memories of his time with her.
This week, before her death, the 24-year-old said the famous recording was ‘‘literally just for about four, five family members’’.
‘‘That morning I asked her for a dance, ‘may I have this dance?’, she was quite responsive in the morning, more than she normally is, so I thought I’d capture that moment and share it with my family members.’’
The world had different ideas. The footage recorded on a propped-up phone had a combined 100 million views around the world, eclipsing the reach of many big-budget television networks.
‘‘The video itself, on my page, it’s been viewed 15 million times. That’s just on my personal page. There’s a lot of viral pages that shared it as well – and they’re reaching 20m views, and 10m views. So all-up, it would have reached at least 100m views on all the different sites put together.’’
Not that he had any control over that. ‘‘The crazy thing is, I have no say in it. Once it’s viral, it’s viral. You can’t stop it. I’m just lucky that it’s a really nice moment that I got to share.’’
Stoneman said the video had even changed some viewers.
‘‘There was one lady, she commented and said that her husband passed away three years ago, and she always used to dance with him in the morning.
‘‘She hadn’t grieved, and when she saw this video, she put it on repeat and she cried for the first time since her husband passed away.’’
Earlier this year Stoneman said he had ‘‘retired’’ his Nan from Facebook life. He mentioned at the time that he would hate for the negative comments on the platform to finally catch up with his great-grandmother. But Stoneman said that was only part of the reason.
‘‘She was going downhill, there were some days when she wasn’t smiling as much, and she was just changing a little bit, and . . . I felt that was the line where it was time for her to just chill out, sit in her chair and chill out.’’
On Friday, he wrote on Facebook: ‘‘Until we dance again. Rest in peace Nanny.’’