A Singaporean man, who lost his grandmother years ago, “visits” her along Hougang Central via an old archived Google Map image of her waiting at a traffic light, whenever he misses her.
The netizen who posted the video, @retroridersg on TikTok, shared the video of his unorthodox way of remembering his late grandmother on 28 January.
In the video, which is a screen recording of him using Google Maps, he was seen navigating around the interface along 840 Hougang Central.
He navigates on Google Maps to a pedestrian crossing dated August 2022, before scrolling through the archived photos of that particular area.
He went back to a captured photo of that same pedestrian crossing from February 2009, showing two elderly women waiting at the traffic light.
He then zoomed in on the elderly woman wearing a purple shirt and holding onto a few bags of groceries, although her face has been censored by Google Maps.
The netizen said in the caption that the old woman is his late grandmother, and he “visits” her like this on Google Maps every Chinese New Year whenever he misses her.
He said in his caption: “Every Chinese new year whenever I miss my late grandma, I would come to google map and she will be there. miss you grandma.”
The netizen spoke to MustShareNews and told them that his grandmother died from cancer more than 2 years ago during the Circuit Breaker period.
He said that he found her on Google Maps while she was still alive, and asked her if she had seen a Google Street View car passing her by.
And now that she’s gone, he goes to Google Maps to see her captured image whenever he misses her, and to tell her that he is doing fine in life.
@retroridersg Every Chinese new year whenever I miss my late grandma, I would come to google map and she will be there. miss you grandma. #fyp #foryoupage #coldplayyellow #cny2023 #grandma ♬ original sound – Lariexxx