This is Nicole Casarez and her grandpa, Ben. Nicole is a 21-year-old senior at the University of North Texas in Denton studying English.
Recently, Nicole's Twitter account went viral after she posted two photos of her grandpa with his orange tree. Ben had been growing the tree for some time (it all began with a seed he found in an orange he was eating) and had brought it inside because the weather was getting cooler.
My grandpa has been growing an Orange tree and he made my grandma take pictures of him with it before we went to ch… https://t.co/Gk3ZpNcNGc
Nicole's photos showed Ben asking his wife, Jane, to take pictures of him standing next to the tree. Turns out he was pretty proud of his accomplishment, especially considering a few people in the family had doubted he could grow it.
On Twitter, people were immediately drawn to Ben's humbleness and pride in his hard work. So far Nicole's tweet has over 5,000 retweets. "Everyone's been saying super positive things," Nicole told BuzzFeed News.
"They think they're couple goals...some say it made them emotional and want updates on what the tree looks like in the future," she said.
There are also more than a few people who were thinking of going as Nicole's grandpa and his tree for Halloween.
Nicole said she thinks her grandpa's story went viral because people are tired of the craziness in the world and just want a nice story that makes them smile. From the reaction, she's probably right.
@jesusandpizza I'm proud of him, his tree looks awesome!!
"I had no idea it was going to take off like this," said Nicole. "I thought some friends and family would share it, but people adore it."
@jesusandpizza Oh this is just too precious😭
@tanyamoreira_ @jesusandpizza OMG HE IS ADORABLE !!! Look at the little tree oh gosh
@jesusandpizza
@jesusandpizza @ladybroseph Aaaw!!!
And some people even shared their own grandparent garden stories.
@jesusandpizza My dad always makes me take pictures too! He is so proud of his garden 💓
Since the tweet went viral Nicole's grandparents are really happy with the reception. They didn't know about their grandaughter's tweet until after it blew up. "It's cool to see how Ben's little projects are getting attention and compliments," said Nicole.
