AJO, AZ — As the vaccine rollout is providing families the chance to reunite, it is not only providing serious and sentimental moments, but also a silly one that is gaining traction online.
After a round of vaccinations, Angie Contreras and her son Brody, 6, gathered for an in-person visit with Brody's great-grandmother, Julia, who lives in Ajo, Arizona. She told ABC15 it was the first opportunity to really spend time together in more than a year.
"You don't even realize how much you miss family until you get to spend that kind of time with them again," Contreras said.
During the visit, Brody, a first-grader at Camelview Elementary School in Phoenix, still had virtual class. He planned to introduce his 102-year-old great-grandmother after he took part in PE.
"PE started and we were doing some stuff and then great-grandma walked in," Brody Contreras said. "She immediately looked at the screen, she didn't know what we were doing, she just started doing something."
That 'something' was joyfully taking part in stretching exercises as part of the virtual PE class. You can hear family laughing in the background of the cell phone video.
"It was really funny when she started it," Brody Contreras said. "[I was] just like, amazed at how good at stretches she was."
And don't think the 102-year-old was just showing off.
"I don't think she realized it was school at that point," Contreras said. "She doesn't realize that they can see her and it's interactive. I think she thought it was just kind of a video."
Cell phone video of the moment, posted to social media on March 3, is picking up viewers online.
"I was practically in happy tears just watching how cute she was," Contreras said. "I knew I had something special by the time that it was over."
Now that Julia has aced PE, ABC15 asked what she should try if there is a next time.
"Music, yeah, music," Brody Contreras said.
A lighthearted moment spawned from a pandemic.
"Watching things evolve like that, a six-and-a-half-year-old and a 102-and-a-half-year-old both doing a computer online classroom, you would never in a million years guess it," Contreras said.
