A woman who lost her beloved grandparents years ago was given a final gift as she unexpectedly found them on Google Maps’ Street View, and she told Newsweek it felt as if they were still alive.
Natalee Nield, 33, had a close relationship with her grandparents, Walter and Freda, and helped care for them both before their deaths in 2017 and 2021.
One of the most difficult parts of grief is the knowledge there are no new memories to make with them—but recently, Nield got a message from her mother telling her to check her grandparent’s address on Google Street View.
“I did, and discovered both of them—not even just one. I didn’t expect to even see one of them, so it was amazing,” she told Newsweek.
Because, when she checked their address, a photograph of their street showed Walter and Freda getting out of a car in front of their property, a photo Nield, from Manchester in the UK, had never seen before.
Sharing the image to her TikTok account @natalee_marie_1 on July 3, she wrote: “6 years since granddad’s been gone, 2 years since nana. I miss you.2
She added in the caption: “Grief is love with nowhere to go.”
Natalee Nield got an unexpected gift when she found her grandparents’ images on Google Street View. She said it felt “almost felt like they were still here.”
TikTok @natalee_marie_1
Google Street View was launched in 2007 and now covers much of the world, giving snapshots of roads in cities and rural areas, while blurring people’s faces for privacy. In 2017, celebrating its 10th anniversary, Google announced it had captured over 10 million miles of imagery over 83 countries.
Nield’s video hugely resonated with TikTok users, gaining almost 650,000 views and 12,000 likes, as people shared their own stories in the comments.
One user was lucky enough to catch a Street View of her grandfather’s house where “he was standing in the window washing up. When I really missed him I would look it up.”
“I could see my dad stood in his gateway on there he’s been gone nearly 6 yrs,” another said, and one shared: “2 years after my dad passed away I randomly looked up Google Street View of our house and I saw him in the yard with the dog. I showed my mom and we cried.”
Nield said that when she saw the unexpected photo of her grandparents, it “almost felt like they were still here, as it looks so familiar”
She admitted she was “really surprised by the response from TikTok, although I understand it’s very relatable for a lot of people.”
Nield was moved by the huge response to her video. People shared their own stories of finding lost loved ones’ photos on the site
TikTok @natalee_marie_1
Describing herself as a “granddad’s girl,” Nield, who works as a self-employed nail technician, explained her grandfather urged her to return to her salon training while she was caring for him in his illness.
And she did, setting up her business which she named in honor of her grandfather, who was “obsessed with London buses throughout his whole life,” including collecting and painting miniature buses.
When thinking of a name for her salon, she learned The Regent bus was released in 1939, the year he was born, so she named her business The Regency Salon.
“I pitched it to my mum who was so shocked,” she told Newsweek, “because my nana and granddad had met at The Regent Pub, on Regent Road in Salford!
“I now have some of granddad’s buses also in the salon in his memory.”
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