3-year-old Naomi touched the hearts of netizens with her adorable confusion. Her aunt, Leah Lai Hing, who posted the TikTok video, expressed shock at the virality of the moment.
The 33-year-old told People, “I was not expecting it at all. Not at all. I don’t think any of us were.” Since she uploaded it, the video has received over 16 million views and over 2 million likes. It featured Naomi delicately attempting to identify which relative was her grandfather as he stood next to one of his identical triplet siblings.
Javon Gordon, Naomi’s mother, recalled that at the time the family first arrived at a cousin’s funeral in Georgia in late August, Naomi questioned why there were “two” grandfathers.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is a perfect moment to record her and try to see [if] she can distinguish between who is her grandfather and who is her uncle.’ So we recorded and we just asked her, ‘Who’s in front of you, and who’s that next to you?’ And she just said, ‘[Another] papa.’ “
By the time Leah opened the app the following morning, she said the response to the 21-second video had just grown “out of control.”
Meanwhile, the 39-year-old mother stated that though their family’s playfulness is simply something Grandpa Leslie and his siblings have always done with the grandchildren, “This is just the first time we actually caught a reaction.”
Grandpa Leslie, a Trinidadian in his early 80s, revealed that because he and his “identical” brothers “were like peas in a pod” while they were growing up together, many people couldn’t tell them apart.
Even though the brothers now live in separate parts of the United States, Leslie informed the network that they remain in close contact.
Gordon, on the other hand, stated that she genuinely wants her toddler’s bond with her “papa” to continue, adding, “I just hope they continue to grow together and she remembers these moments that she has with him.”
