Hearts Break As Toddler Comforts Grieving Older Brother: 'Lost for Words'

A grieving mother caught a sweet moment between her two sons as her toddler comforted his brother the only way he knew how.

Nickie Hendry lives in Scotland with her two sons, Mason, 11, and Owen, three, and the family is still grieving the loss of Hendry's mother, Irene, who died unexpectedly in 2022.

Irene had a close relationship with all five of her daughters and 10 grandchildren, and had a "special bond" with Hendry's son, Mason, which was "difficult to put into words."

"I lived closest to my mum so that played a part in their bond as we were there pretty much every day," Hendry told Newsweek. "We went on holidays together, I was a single parent to Mason so she helped me more than she helped my sisters, and on top of all that Mason has autism so often it was myself and my mum going to all of his appointments together."

Mason, too, was "obsessed" with grandma Irene, with Hendry describing her as "almost like a second parent" to him.

But in 2022, as her daughters planned a surprise party and a cruise holiday to celebrate her 60th birthday, Irene died suddenly, shattering her family's hearts. Hendry "felt the world crumble beneath my feet."

Mason, too, grieved hard for his grandmother, sleeping in Hendry's bed, watching videos and looking at photos of her. He attended grief counseling and art therapy to help him cope with Irene's passing.

"He'd look up to the moon and say goodnight to his nana every day religiously for the first six months or so," Hendry told Newsweek.

When Irene died, Hendry's youngest son, Owen, was just six months old, and doesn't share the same memories of hid grandma—but as a video shared to Hendry's TikTok account @nickiehendryx shows, he knows when his brother needs comfort.

Viewed over 1.4 million times, the video shows Mason and Owen hugging each other tightly, as Mason tearfully says: "I miss Nana."

Owen urges him to "look at me," and holds him tight, asking if he wants a "cuddle" before turning back to his mother and saying: "Mum, Mason's sad."

Hendry wrote in a comment that she was "lost for words," and in a caption said she had a "lump in my throat watching this back."

"I held back before comforting Mason as I wanted to see what Owen would do. The hardest part of grieving as a mum is not being able to take your child's grief away."

Thousands of people flocked to the comments in support, many sharing their own stories of grief, as one wrote: "I still cry for my nana at 33. I was 7 when she passed. It's a profound bond."

One user said they "cried with him," as another admitted: "I'm crying watching this, bless them both."

And as one shared: "My nana died when I was 17 my heart still aches for her at 28! Tell him the grief is just all his love for her with nowhere to go right now but she'll still feel it in heaven."

Hendry told Newsweek she was "really taken aback" at how her toddler comforted his older brother, as "he had only just turned three, he doesn't understand the concept of grief and he was only six months old when my mum died so he doesn't remember her.'

"I felt so proud that he could show compassion like that at such a young age," she added.

She said there were some "negative comments" about her allowing Owen to comfort his brother before going to him herself, but she said: "I guess you have to expect that when such a wide audience [is] seeing your video. Mason knows I've done my best to support him and that's all that matters."

She explained she only recently set up her TikTok account to document the journey of transforming her yard into a memorial garden for her mother, and "had no intentions of sharing videos of the boys, but I just thought it was such a powerful moment."

"It was nice to see people were able to share their experiences and lighten the load of carrying grief around every day," Hendry added.

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