On May 1, Molly Selin was making her way home on the subway to her New York City apartment. The 27-year-old had just returned from a work trip to Spain.
“I was looking forward to that quiet in-between state, homestretch of traveling back,” Selin later recalled in a TikTok video. “I could already feel the shower I was going to take. I just had to get through the next 30 minutes.”
“AirPods in, world off,” she emphasized.
But then, a woman on the train asked her a question.
“I didn’t hear her,” Selin admitted. “My headphones were in, but she had already gotten my attention, so I looked up. We made eye contact. [She had] warm eyes, on the older side, cute glasses.”
So she took one AirPod out.
“Were you just traveling?” The woman asked.
Selin replied with a simple yes and popped her AirPod back in. Then the woman asked her a follow-up question.
“I was confused because I had already answered, and in my mind, that felt like a clear end to the conversation,” she explained. “I looked up again. Both AirPods were still in, and she repeated herself. ‘Where did you go?’”
So, Selin took an AirPod out again and replied: “Spain.”
That’s when the woman’s eyes lit up: “‘Spain! I've never been to Spain, but I've always wanted to go. Was it amazing?’”
Selin melted at her excitement, which reminded her of her own grandmother.
“Something about the way she said it made me take both AirPods out and put them in my case,” she said. “She had my full attention … and just like that, we started talking.”
The woman was an 81-year-old named Maria. From their seats on the subway, she shared the hardships she had endured, including losing her husband, parents, and daughter.
She also revealed a lifelong dream: returning to her native Puerto Rico, which she had left more than 70 years earlier. Although she longed to go back, a fear of flying had kept her from making the trip.
So Selin offered to make the journey with her.
“Even as I was telling her that I would fly with her, I couldn’t even believe that I was saying it,” Selin told TODAY. “But I just meant it.”
“She’s so funny. She’s like, ‘I never talk to strangers. I don’t know why I did that! But I felt like I wanted to,’” Selin said. “We don’t know how this happened, but it really was meant to happen, as we say.”
After she got home, Selin shared their encounter on TikTok, and received thousands of comments from people who resonated with her story of intergenerational friendship.
“Our second flight got cancelled,” a twenty-something TikTok user said, sharing a photo of an older woman and herself. “We were both on a layover and got to chatting while waiting for the airline to get us to the hotel. We had dinner together, and it was so fun!”
“Met these sweet ladies on a trip to Hawaii,” another user shared, alongside a photo of her and two senior seatmates on an airplane. “We exchanged numbers and still check on each other. Barb in the middle was 89 and living her best life!”
One user even had their own “Maria” story.
“I met a Maria on the bus,” she wrote. “She was around 60 years old and told me her friend just cancelled a concert that night. She asked if I wanted to join her — I said yes. We’re still friends.”
The comments section was also filled with kind words from people who said the story gave them hope.
“Reading people’s response to kindness and openness, and people sharing stories of people that they had met and other pictures and images … it was overwhelming in the most incredible way,” Selin said.
When Selin showed Maria the comments, she was baffled.
“What? People are saying that about me? You’re kidding. No one’s ever said that about me,” Maria told Selin.
When the video went viral — garnering over three million views — it also gained attention from global brands that wanted to support Maria’s lifelong wish.
“We’d be honored to help write the next chapter of this story,” Delta commented. “How about we take you both on that trip to PR?”
“We’d love to help make Puerto Rico happen!” Hotels.com chimed in.
“Such a suite [sic] story! Maria deserves to see the world, especially her family!” Hilton added.
Selin has continued having meals with Maria every week as they make plans for their trip to Puerto Rico in July.
“I feel like there are so many big and small moments that I’m excited to experience with her, whether it’s wristbands from something or Polaroid pictures,” Selin told TODAY. “ I think for both of us it’s going to be so much to take in over the course of the week.”
Months ago, in Selin’s original video, she said that she had no idea what her friendship with Maria could turn into.
“But I’m glad I took my AirPods out,” she said.
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Header image via Molly Selin
