A video showing a 93-year-old woman in Hanoi attempting to climb a gate to go find her husband has captured widespread attention online in recent days.

In the clip, the elderly woman, her hair snow-white, struggles to scale the tall gate but fails. The scene is followed by a tender conversation between her and her grandson.

She repeatedly asks about her husband. Though her grandson explains that her husband is at a banquet, she insists on going to fetch him. "Where is he? I don’t see him"; "Why hasn't he come back yet?"; "Tell your father to bring him home for me."

The video has garnered 1.6 million views, nearly 50,000 likes, and thousands of heartfelt comments. Some viewers wrote: “I guess she’s experiencing dementia. Still, she remembers her husband clearly”; “She might forget everything else, but not her husband.”

According to Nguyen Dinh Nam, the uploader and her grandson, the woman in the video is his paternal grandmother, Bach Thi Ken, 93 years old, living in My Duc district, Hanoi.

Nam clarified that the viral clip was stitched together from two separate videos: the gate-climbing scene was recorded on May 4, while the conversation occurred a day earlier.

“My grandmother is healthy but suffers from dementia. She often tries to sneak out in search of my grandfather,” Nam shared.

On the morning of May 4, after waking to noises at the gate, Nam looked down from the second floor and saw his grandmother struggling to climb out. He quickly recorded a few seconds before rushing down. By the time he reached her, she had already returned to the house, knocking and calling for someone to open the gate.

Ken has six children (four sons and two daughters). Her 97-year-old husband suffered a stroke several months ago and is now bedridden, cared for by their eldest son. Though physically well, Ken’s mind has become clouded with age, and she frequently shuttles between her eldest and youngest sons’ homes.

“She eats and sleeps at my uncle’s house in the evening, then comes to our house in the morning. Our home has higher walls, making it harder for her to climb over. A few years ago, we even raised the walls and gate to keep her from escaping,” Nam said.

Since her condition worsened, Nam’s family has had to keep the gate locked to prevent her from wandering off and getting lost. There have been several incidents where she sneaked out to look for her husband and had to be found and brought back home.

“When she can’t climb over the wall, she returns and knocks on the door, asking us to let her go find my grandfather,” Nam said with a smile.

Ken’s husband originally came from Binh Da village in Thanh Oai district, Hanoi. Decades ago, he moved to live with her in My Duc. But due to her memory loss, Ken believes she is still in her husband’s hometown and often insists on being taken back to her “mother’s house.”

“In reality, she’s already at home. But with how the village has changed over time, she doesn’t recognize it. I sometimes record her outbursts, though it’s all with affection,” Nam explained.

Ken and her husband have always been a shining example of marital devotion. Over the decades, they remained devoted to each other. Her husband always defended and cared for her.

“When they were still healthy, my grandparents lived on a small farm, preferring to care for each other rather than live with their children.

Though life on the farm was simple, they were very happy. They took care of each other, buying medicine when one fell ill, rarely asking the children for help,” Nam recalled.

During those years, the couple grew vegetables and raised fish. Only when they became too frail did their children convince them to return to the village and live with the family.

Nam, who now works in downtown Hanoi, visits his grandparents every weekend. Since the pandemic, he’s spent more time recording daily life moments with his grandmother to preserve them.

“Growing up, I lived with my grandparents and was showered with their love. My childhood was filled with memories of sleeping in my grandmother’s arms.

Now that they are older, I’m afraid of the day I won’t have them anymore. So I try to spend every moment I can with them and capture our time together on video,” Nam shared.

Thanh Minh