Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Add Upworthy to your Google News feed.
Google News Button

Turning 95 deserves a big celebration. After all, there are only approximately 631,000 people alive in the United States who are 95 years old and older, according to the United States Census Bureau in 2020. So TikToker Collen Scott Hartel (@colleenhartel) and her family decided to throw her grandpa a surprise birthday party he would never forget. And they chose to host his iconic birthday party at his all-time favorite fast food restaurant: Arby's.

Hartel gathered nearly 20 family members to an Arby's in Lumberton, Texas. "We all live in/are from Beaumont! 😄 The only Arby’s in Beaumont is attached to the Loves gas station so we opted for Lumberton because it’s new, a stand alone building, and very nice!" she wrote in the comments.


She shared a touching compilation video with her TikTok followers of the family coming together. "Surprise 95th birthday for my Grandpa at his favorite restaurant, @Arbys He was so excited to have a jamocha shake! 🤠🥤," she captioned the video.

@colleenhartel

Surprise 95th birthday for my Grandpa at his favorite restaurant, @Arbys He was so excited to have a jamocha shake! 🤠🥤

In the video, Hartel's grandpa walks into the restaurant with his wife and is surprised to see his entire family waiting inside for him. He is given a black 95th birthday sash to wear, as well as a 10-gallon hat that matches the Arby's logo (which he proudly wears the entire video). The restaurant is decorated with a 95th birthday banner, and the video pans to his birthday cake that says, 'Happy 95th Birthday, Cowboy!' that has a funny photo printed on it of himself wearing the 10-gallon hat next to his wife. The family sings happy birthday to him, and he blows out the candles on his cake. The video ends with the entire family posing for a photo together, with multiple generations present to honor him.

It's truly a celebration, and many viewers were itching to know what his Arby's order is. Hartel shared, "Beef & cheddar with Arby’s sauce, curly fries and a jamocha shake 🥰."

Arby'sArby's logo.Arby's/Wikipedia

Many more filled the comments with heartfelt well wishes and notes. One wrote, "awww I drove my mom 3 hours to get a hot dog from a place she used to go as a kid....yes a hot dog lol best day ever!", and Hartel responded, "The older you get the more you realize that these are the things that matter ❤️." Another viewer commented, "Now every time I wonder who’s keeping Arby’s in business I’ll think, Colleen’s grandpa ! 😭😭😭😭❤️❤️" The video touched another watcher who wrote, "this genuinely made me cry 😭 he looks so happy to have everyone there 🥹."

Others shared their special birthday stories of celebrations they had at fast food restaurants with their grandparents and older neighbors. "we had a bday party at whataburger for my old neighbor as a kid and I’ll never forget it :’) we rode over on lawn mowers like a lil parade," one wrote. Another shared, "We did this we my husbands great grandma except it was her 100th at Dairy Queen!" And another added, "My grandmas favorite restaurant was Wendy’s so we went there for her 93rd bday! Ugh I miss her and I love this video!"

More For You

Dad explains how he 'protects' daughter by taking her into the women's bathroom

While some states have made great progress in improving the child changing stations in men's bathrooms, many still lag behind. A few years ago, father Charles Mau went viral when he shared the appalling conditions he encountered while changing his daughter.

That's why Chronicles of Daddy blogger Muhammed Nitoto decided to share his solution to the problem: taking his daughter into the women's bathroom instead. In a viral Instagram post, Nitoto explained that he does so to "protect" his daughter from "all things that aren't for them, and the men's bathroom is 100% one of those things."

Keep ReadingShow less
sad, sadness, emotional
a man holds his head while sitting on a sofa

Millennials discuss the impact of their parents lack of emotional support

Every generation has different parenting styles that have impacted their children's mental health and emotional intelligence. And when Reddit user u/Soup_stew_supremacy posed the question to r/Millennials: "Do any of you struggle to get emotional support from your parents?"–the response was robust.

"I'm not sure if it's because they weren't supported in some way, or just a generational thing, but myself, my husband and some of our friends and family members often lack emotional support from their parents," she shared. "My parents are in no way bad people, but they get really uncomfortable with feelings of any kind, and they pretty much just want to talk with you about surface-level stuff. If you tell them something that's been hard for you, they will say 'Oh, that sucks. So anyway...' I couldn't imagine trying to look to them for emotional or mental support, it would just be embarrassing and uncomfortable for us both."

Keep ReadingShow less
Mom, mom and son, working mom
woman in gray sweater carrying baby in blue and white shirt
Photo by Gabe Pierce on Unsplash

Toddler's sweet messages for working mom on doorbell cam melts hearts

Doorbell cameras have captured so many iconic moments. From a UPS driver grateful for snacks left out at a home she was delivering at, to a new mom receiving heartfelt parenting advice from her mom during a visit, to an Amazon driver doing a solid for a woman looking to conceal her purchases from her husband--they do so much more than serve as a security tool.

And for first-time and working mom Hannah Bell, her doorbell camera has helped her create beautiful memories with her toddler, Landon, each morning she is away from home at the office. Bell shared with Newsweek, "I started consistently leaving for work before my son woke up in the morning, so we didn't get to see each other most mornings."

Keep ReadingShow less
Chris Hemsworth's response to his daughter's big question deserves applause

Chris explains what happened.

Image from ellentube/YouTube video.

Chris Hemsworth's response to his daughter's big question deserves applause

Chris Hemsworth might be best known for swinging a hammer as the Norse god of thunder in “Thor: Ragnarok,” but when it comes to being a dad, he’s just as legendary. The 35-year-old actor and father-of-three had a standout parenting moment that proves he’s more than just a superhero on screen.

It started with a curious question from his daughter

In a 2015 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Hemsworth shared a story that starts with his daughter, 4-year-old India, having a very specific question about anatomy—and ends with a beautiful message about identity and acceptance.

Keep ReadingShow less
Gay teen asks friend's mom permission to attend girls-only sleepover. She handled it beautifully.
Reddit

Gay teen asks friend's mom permission to attend girls-only sleepover. She handled it beautifully.

For many young people, sleepovers have long been cherished occasions to bond with close friends - sharing late-night chats, snacking on treats, and revealing deep dark secrets. It's within these intimate gatherings that unbreakable connections and lifelong friendships are often forged. When Mason Brian Barclay's new best friend, Houston Shelton, invited him to a sleepover at her house, he was eager to take part in this rite of passage. However, Houston's parents had instituted a strict no-opposite-sex rule, meaning only girls were allowed.

Undaunted by the gender-based restriction, Barclay decided to directly appeal to Houston's mother, making a thoughtful case for why she should allow him to participate. "Hey, Mrs. Shelton! This is Mason Brian Barclay, I am one of Houston's new best friends. If she had people over on Friday, would I, a very homosexual male, be able to take part in the sleepover?" he asked her in a text message. "I think the common meaning behind only allowing the same sex to share sleepovers is due to the typical interest in the opposite sex when in this case, I do not like the opposite sex."

Keep ReadingShow less