When Janet Merryman, an 80-year-old grandmother of four, battled loneliness and struggled to stay at home alone, she never thought she would become a TikTok star. Her granddaughter, however, decided to film their shopping trip for Merryman’s wedding dress, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In her video, posted on October 3, 2023, Danielle Jefferson showed her grandma posing in a dress she picked to marry her 60-year-old fiancé. The woman walked in front of the mirror in a strapless white dress with a slit to City Session’s song “Get You the Moon.”
When given a small bell, the soon-to-be bride rang it, unsure at first, but then laughed and gave in to excitement. In their feature on GMA, Jefferson recalled how other brides in the shop stopped trying on dresses to look at her grandma.
The users were quick to support the woman on her way to happiness, noting her incredibly youthful appearance. “I don’t believe she is 80 wow!” one commenter wrote. Others agreed with them: “no [redacted] way she 80,, wow she is stunning,” and “How can this woman be 80? … Someone’s pulling someone’s leg here,” other users commented.
Some users also noted Merryman’s beautiful legs: “Look at those legs honey!!” Jefferson explained that her grandma is always wearing high heels and never leaves the house without them.
“When I’m reading these comments from strangers, I’m very happy. I just can’t believe this has happened at my age,” Merryman said.
In the next video, Jefferson shows the pair getting ready for the wedding and invites the viewers to join them. The woman walks the users through their day, completing it with witty remarks.
Throughout the video, Merryman maintained a playful sarcastic tone. When her granddaughter asked if she was excited, the woman drawled, “I don’t know.” Jefferson also made sure to tease her grandma, calling her a “bridezilla.” Both women got hair and makeup done, with the bride wearing her hair up, bedazzled with rhinestones.
Jefferson wore a deep-blue dress with a slit, while her grandma was seen in the wedding dress she rocked in the previous video. The granddaughter accented on the slit on the bride’s dress, cheering, “Gorgeous, queen! 80 years old and still slaying!”
When she asked if her grandma had any last words as an “unmarried bride,” the woman replied in her usual slightly sarcastic tone:
“I’m not sure about this [redacted].”
The third video with Jefferson’s wedding speech was even more of a treat. “I just wrote this during cocktail hours,” she announced, “so bear with me.”
“I’ll never forget the day that my grandma called me and told me she kissed a boy. I was happy for her, but I was nervous for me. At the time, Janet was my traveling buddy … and all of a sudden, she would rather stay at home with Dave!”
However, Jefferson admitted, she could not be upset because of the smile Dave put on her grandma’s face and saved her “money on her airfare.” She continued teasing the newlyweds, saying, “They put a ton of sweat and tears into this wedding, and by ‘they,’ I mean ‘Dave.’”
On a more serious note, the woman added how her grandmother was featured on Good Morning America, sharing her story of getting married later in life, and how she inspired many young women, including her granddaughter. She also gave a glimpse of their earlier life, thanking Merryman for taking her in when she was 13.
“I hope I look half as good as her when I’m her age.”
Then, Jefferson turned her attention to Dave, who didn’t miss a beat to jokingly reply, “Really?” She said the man had been great for their family. Since she had been living with her grandma first, she said, she would pray for him.
Another video from the wedding showed the couple cutting the cake and feeding it to each other, followed by a passionate kiss.
The family also appeared on Tamron Hall Show, where they shared some family history, as well as Merryman’s and her husband’s love story. The woman told the audience she met her late husband at 15 and had been married to him for 45 years when he died unexpectedly. Soon, she was diagnosed with colon cancer.
“That was the lowest I thought I could ever get.”
The woman described her struggles with loneliness, not wanting to be in the house or eat by herself. Jefferson added that while living with her grandmother from ages 13 to 17 was nice, when she left the nest, seeing her alone again was very hard. No amount of traveling with her could fix it. That was, the woman said, “until the neighbor.”
When Merryman first met Dave in 2012, he was her next-door neighbor and married, as Jefferson added. Then, he became single, and the woman started inviting him to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. “Every time he got ready to go home,” she reminisced, “he would give me a little hug … and then, we just grew from there.”
Dave himself admitted to not knowing about her struggles. “She would go out on her own, she would go shopping,” he said. When asked how she managed to steal his heart, the man admitted his now wife looked fabulous “all the time.”
In 2021, Dave proposed to her, and she said yes, but not before cracking a joke. According to Merryman, she said, “There better not be a plastic ring.”
We wish all the best to the newlyweds!
