Woman, 28, Tears Up After Finding Note on Her Door About Elderly Neighbor. What Viral Video Didn't Show (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Joanne Odom.Photo:bigly_haha/TikTok; Joanne Odom

bigly_haha/TikTok; Joanne Odom

A 28-year-old woman went viral on social media for sharing heremotional responseafter learning that an elderly neighbor she’d grown close with had moved to an assisted living home.

“She really meant a lot to me,” Joanne Odom tells PEOPLE. “She still does.”

After Odom moved into her apartment in October, Faris, a retiree in her 70s and a fellow dog owner, “quickly” introduced herself and made sure Odom was comfortable. (Faris, who has Parkinson’s disease, declined to be interviewed.)

Regardless of their age difference, the nanny shares that Faris was “easy to talk to” and “relatable.” The two even shared some “vulnerable” conversations ahead of the 2024 election.

“She’s disabled, so she had a lot of concerns, and we were both just scared and feeling sad for a while there in the beginning of November and throughout," Odom says. “Honestly, we bonded a lot."

“Things were scary to us, and we were able to be there for each other and just remind each other that we might’ve felt alone, but we were not alone, we were in each other’s corner,” Odom adds.

By December, Odom — who also works as a styling consultant and a tutor — says Faris had her daughter over and the pair were moving some things.

She eventually stopped Faris' daughter and asked “what was going on.” Then she found out that Faris “was thinking of moving.”

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Still, in the back of her mind, Odom tells PEOPLE she tried to reman “optimistic” that her friend would stay.

But on Wednesday, Jan. 1, the 28-year-old woman says that after she returned from the gym she found a note on her door from Faris.

“She had gotten somebody to come stick it on my door just with some scotch tape,” Odom adds. “It just had her name and the address of her assisted living home.”

Visibly upset and fresh off from learning the news, she says she decided to share what happened on TikTok. “I’m a really transparent person, and I am not scared to show vulnerability when I am upset,” she says.

Making the video, which has amassed over 628,000 views and 84,000 likes, felt “therapeutic” to Odom.

“A lot of people reached out to me after that and commented and shared stories," she says. “And while it was a very emotional time, all of the support that I got made me even more emotional. It really felt nice, and I just felt that connection.”

And despite the move, the two still frequently text — though it sometimes takes a day or two for Faris to respond. But Odom says the delays are comforting because she knows Faris is adapting to her new “community.”

“I had the first few days of ‘Is she okay?’ ” Odom says. “A lot of that has just been filled with relief that she’s doing well.”

source: people.com