Woman sees 97-year-old walking alone and offers a ride — not knowing they have a surprising connection

A split moment of kindness and two lives were changed. Estrella Quiroz, 29, an entrepreneur who goes by @estrellaq95 on TikTok, was driving on her way to lunch when she noticed an old woman dawdling at a turn on the street. She was intrigued by how slow the old lady was walking on a hot day like that. As she drove past her, Quiroz felt a tug in her chest, and her conscience urged her to pull over and offer the lady a ride. A connection of a lifetime was waiting to be made in that moment. When the old lady, Lilian, agreed to take the ride, the duo got to talking and uncovered a surprising link. 

Quiroz, co-founder of LastFarewells, offered the ride and took her for lunch at Wendy’s. “In the car, she was like, ‘Why are you taking me?’ And that's when I was like, ‘You remind me of my grandma,’” she told PEOPLE in an interview. During the drive, she found out that Lilian was 97 years old and living alone through government assistance. She also worked as a former accountant back in the day. “She's very savvy. Even after we pulled out of Wendy's, and I was going to drop her off at home, she was literally directing me. She was very aware of where I was driving…I was really impressed by her sharpness,” the creator noted. Even though she was not an avid poster on TikTok, Quiroz decided to film their meeting and share it online on a whim.

In a viral video with 599,000 views, Quiroz explains how she met the old lady. She talked to Lilian in Spanish and bonded with her over lunch. “Don’t worry about the money. It’s a gift,” she said in the video. Both Lilian and Quiroz were originally from Nicaragua. By the end of the clip, Lilian earnestly thanked Quiroz as she relished Wendy’s lunch. In the caption, she profoundly expressed all the big emotions that meeting Lilian had made her feel. “I adopted a 97-year-old off the street,” the overlay text hinted. She had not expected it to go viral within a day. The next morning, Quiroz was bombarded with a storm of messages from people willing to help. This encouraged her to set up a GoFundMe for Lilian with a goal of only $5,000. At present, kind strangers have raised over $22,000. 

Daughter of immigrants in the U.S., Quiroz has immense gratitude for everything she has. However, when her father was deported back, and eventually passed away while she was only 18, she felt his absence. “My dad left me these voicemails, and he tells me that he hopes a million angels look after me, and that he loves me,” she recalled in the interview. “I really do think Lilian was an angel in my life, a living angel. I just think she came at the right time.” She even discovered that Lilian was born in León in Nicaragua, also where her father was born, and now remains buried in. Quiroz was surprised by coincidence since León is neither the capital nor a popular city. To her, this meeting feels like a sign from the angels.

You can follow @estrella195 on TikTok for more videos.