A Washington dad captured on camera the heart- warming moment his 92-year-old grandmother, Millie, met his two-day-old daughter, Penelope, for the first time.
Scott Martin’s wife, Jennifer, gave birth to the couple’s first child, Penelop Rose Martin, on Friday. Martin told ABC News he and his wife spent three years trying to conceive so the birth of Penelope, or Pip, as they are calling her, was extra special.
On Sunday, just one day after the Tumwater, Washington, couple brought Penelope home, they introduced her to her great-grandmother, 92-year-old Millie Martin, whom Scott calls, “the first love of my life.”
Using just his smartphone, Martin managed to capture the first moment that Millie - who is bedridden with congestive heart failure but still mentally “as sharp as ever” – met her fifth great-grandchild.
“We’d been sitting talking with Millie and finally Penelope woke up,” Jennifer said. “They just sat and talked and looked at each other for a few minutes.”
“It was a really special moment,” she said. “She kept her in her lap for close to an hour.”
Millie, a retired teacher whose husband passed away nearly two months ago, is the mother of two sons, including Scott’s father, who died in a car crash nearly nine years ago.
“We’ve gotten even a lost closer in the last decade,” said Scott, who also said Millie took care of him the first year of his life after he experienced health issues.
The grandmother-of-four also conveyed a heartwarming message to her family gathered at home to celebrate the birth of Penelope.
“She’s very Christian and talks about praying for the family and holding on for the baby and she kind of looked at us and said that she’s happy now,” Jennifer recalled. “As soon as she saw Pip she said, ‘You can start praying for the rest of the family now.’”
Martin posted the photo of his daughter and grandmother on Reddit, where it quickly went viral.
Internet fame, it turns out, is nothing new for baby Penelope, whose 14-week ultrasound went viral in March after it appeared she was clapping during the exam.
“She’s had quite an eventful career so far,” Martin joked.