Kate Hackett
Joshua Pettit recently posted a video of his 85-year-old mother who has Alzheimer’s on TikTok. The video went viral and inspired many.
Joshua has been taking care of his mother, Betty, in Moorseville, N.C. for nine years. He has documented the toll the disease has taken — and some of the laughs — on a viral TikTok account.
“We suddenly realized we were shining a light on this disease that a lot of people weren’t necessarily familiar with or didn’t understand what that looked like,” said Pettit in an interview with Count On 2 News.
Joshua’s account exploded around Thanksgiving of last year when Joshua recorded his mother talking to herself in the mirror; she believed she was talking to another person.
The Pettit family realized Betty was suffering from Alzheimer’s when she was diagnosed with lung and kidney cancer nine years ago. She had surgeries for her cancer, but with every surgery, the Alzheimer’s symptoms seemed to get worse. To help, Joshua had his parents move in with him.
The TikTok account’s viral explosion has been good for his mother, says Joshua. It gives her a distraction and helps when they get gifts from her fans.
Enter: the cookie video.
“Recently, there was a video of her wanting a cookie for breakfast, and I wouldn’t give her a cookie for breakfast, and that created an internet outcry of people sending her cookies,” said Joshua.
Joshua asks her mother what she would like right now. She answers, “A cookie.”
Joshua explains in the video that she can’t have a cookie right now, it’s breakfast time, and Betty puts her head in her hand sadly. Joshua tells his mom that his dad is making her bacon and eggs. He tries to reason with his mom, saying she never would have let him have a cookie for breakfast.
She smiles and says that she always lets him have cookies for breakfast.
“Nooo,” Joshua says with a laugh.
The video inspired people to send SO many cookies to the famous TikTokers; some fans laughed along with them, telling Joshua to “give her what she wants!”
Joshua said that the illness has been very hard, but the TikTok account has helped make the disease into a more positive experience.
“We struggled with this and didn’t know if we were doing a good job or how we were dealing with this,” he said. “People were saying, ‘wow, you guys are handling this great.’ We looked at each other and said, ‘maybe we are doing a good job with this.’”
