‘Sad Papaw’ holds cookout, hundreds show up

KNOXVILLE (WATE) – In the hustle and bustle of life it can be easy to forget about grandparents.

Kelsey Harmon, a freshman softball player at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, tweeted a photo of her grandfather writing, “dinner with papaw tonight…. he made 12 burgers for all six grandkids and I’m the only one who showed.” Alongside a sad face emoji icon she also wrote “love him.”

The photo clearly pulled at a few heartstrings or perhaps users own empathy for parents or grandparents. By Friday the tweet had received over 141,000 retweets, 232,000 likes and hundreds of responses.

On Saturday, Papaw held a cookout and invited the public. Hundreds showed up to eat a burger with the now-famous grandfather.MEMES

The photo even inspired several memes:

A handful of users even took it upon themselves to track down family members of Papaw and chastise them for not showing up for dinner. One of the cousins, Brock Harmon, was so moved by the comments he showed up to claim leftovers.

Others promised to visit soon…

How is Papaw handling all of the publicity?

Kelsey Harmon posted a note to her Twitter account that says Papaw is perfectly fine.

“He knows about his new found fame and he is just as shocked as me. He doesn’t understand social media, but he is very thankful for all the kind words,” said Kelsey Harmon.

The college student says she has had many messages telling her the post encouraged them to visit their grandparents and that means a lot to her. She said she has also seen many sad posts from people who couldn’t see their grandparents and her heart aches for them.