One family redefined what it meant to be there for loved ones, gaining the hearts of internet users all around the world. In a now-viral video, Janet explains why her mother and sister traveled all the way from the U.S. to Paris.
She was dealing with postpartum life after giving birth via C-section on June 16, without the presence of her mother and sister, who were scheduled to arrive around June 19 but missed their flight. She immediately began to feel her mother’s absence.
Janet told People, “I literally broke down in tears, begging my husband for help. I cried out for my mom.”
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However, she had no idea that her mother, Miss Kay, and sister, Jessica, were in the air, coming from the United States to Paris to be by her side. The moment they met, which was captured by Jessica, resonated with the internet after it was shared on TikTok.
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The text over the video read, “POV: Postpartum. Alone. Struggling. Then your mom and sister show up at your door. Flew across the world just to hold you. This is what love looks like.”
She later recounted the moment to Newsweek, saying, “That moment still plays in my mind. I was sitting on the couch, pumping and exhausted, trying to care for my newborn the best I could.”
Hearing the door open, she initially assumed it was her husband or the cleaner—but was faced with surprise.
“When I turned around and saw my mother and sister walk through the door with the biggest smiles on their faces, I lost it,” she said. “I broke down in tears instantly. It felt like my entire body let go of a weight I didn’t even realize I was carrying. I couldn’t believe they were standing in front of me.”
Before their arrival, Janet said she didn’t feel like herself and felt alone, even though her husband was present and supportive. She believed that at that moment, she needed the presence of her mother and sister and was disappointed when they couldn’t make it.
“So when I saw them, it was relief,” she explained. “Whatever was heavy on my shoulders just dropped.”
As soon as they stepped inside, they jumped into action. Janet remembered them saying, “Okay, take a shower, go to sleep. We got it for the night.”
That moment, she said, was about more than just help. “It’s that love that shows up,” Janet said. “From having a baby to battling sickness, Black women know how to carry each other.”
Her mother, being one of fifteen siblings, told People that she was taught the value of showing up from a young age. “I thought I didn’t need anyone when I had my first child either,” she pointed out. “But once that baby comes, everything changes. You do need your mother. You do need help.”
Janet, on the other hand, admitted that she had always taken pride in her independence. But becoming a mother changed all that.
“I’ve always been independent. I never really asked for help,” she recounted. “But when I got pregnant, everyone said, ‘You’ll need us,’ and I was like, ‘No, I’ve got this.’ But I didn’t.”
She believes becoming a mother changed how she saw strength. “The dynamic of the strong Black woman has shifted for me in the transition to motherhood,” she remarked. “You can still be strong and ask for help.”
Shortly after their visit, she decided to return to the United States temporarily in order to be near her village. “I knew I needed the village,” she said. “Not just to recover physically, but to be mentally well. To feel whole.”
Meanwhile, her sister, Jessica, expressed surprise when the video became popular.
“I didn’t expect the reaction we received,” she said. “I started recording not because I knew it would go viral, but because something told me to capture it.”
She added that the surprise had been difficult to pull off because they spoke to each other all the time.
Jessica said her goal was simple. She wanted to help. “When we got there, it was all about how I could help,” she said. “Cleaning, the fridge stocked, meals prepped. Just whatever we could do in the short time we had.”
She explained that her actions came from her own story. “When I had my first baby at 21, I had no idea what to do,” Jessica said. “My aunt came and stayed for a month. What I did for Janet is exactly what they did for me.”
Thousands of people responded to Janet’s message, sharing their own experiences with postpartum stress. “Women kept saying, ‘I wish someone had told me how hard this is,'” Janet explained. “Others said, ‘I needed my mom too.’ It was almost like a collective sigh.”
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There are days when Janet feels like she’s falling short. When feedings are frustrating and sleep is scarce. “But I’m doing my best,” she said. “And I’ve realized that has to be enough.”
The family hopes that the video will let other women know it is okay to reach out in difficult times.
“It’s okay to ask for help,” Miss Kay said. “They don’t always know what they need. Sometimes you just have to show up and hold the baby.”
Jessica added, “Just listen. They’ll tell you what they need without even meaning to. And if you don’t know, just do.”
Janet now sees more than just a memory when she watches the video. She sees a message. “It’s a sacred circle,” she said. “That moment between women, it’s vulnerability, love, and legacy. It’s motherhood in motion.”
She thinks it will resonate with other mothers. “That moment changed everything,” Janet remarked. “It taught me I don’t have to carry it all alone. And I don’t want other women to think they have to either.”
