Death happens anytime, anywhere. Death is inevitability and unpredictability, and this is why it's impact can be serious to the living.
On the internet, particularly on social media, people can share just about anything. And on TikTok, a user that goes by the name Annie Niu, earns the internet's praise for a "heartbreaking yet heartwarming story."
Annie revealed that she has been pretending to be her deceased twin sister in front of their grandparents, who are unaware that her sibling passed away years ago.
In a TikTok video that quickly went viral, she showed how she was callling her grandparents over the holidays, posing as her late sister.
"POV: your twin sister passed away three years ago, but you still haven’t told your grandparents, so now you have to call them every holiday pretending to be her," reads the text overlay on the video.
Annie Niu that she lost her sister, who she chose not to name, three years ago to meningitis—a life-threatening infection that affects the brain and spinal cord.
She shared that her grandparents were never told about her sibling's passing, and because of that, she chooses to impersonate her deceased sister to protect them from the pain.
She explained that her grandparents "basically raised me and my sister, so we were very close to them.”
"We are probably just going to continue making up excuses why she isn’t visiting them," she added.
"[We] don’t have the heart to tell them. It’ll crush them."
Her video received an outpouring of heartwarming responses, with many users expressing sympathy and understanding.
One user called it the most “heartbreaking yet heartwarming story.”
“I’m so sorry, Annie. It’s incredibly selfless of you to do that to protect your grandparents, even though it must be painful,” read another comment.
However, some questioned her decision to deceive her grandparents.
In response, the TikToker said that she's only protecting her elderly grandparents from the shocking news, and that is part of her culture.
"A lot of y’all don’t understand; this is really common in Asian culture. We try to shield the elderly from terrible news."
The death of a family member is definitely devastating.
She said that her grandparents, with whom the twins were very close, might not be able to handle the shock of her sister's death, and she fears it could negatively affect their health.
"They don’t deserve to die, and you can’t guarantee that that’s not going to happen if you tell them," Annie explained in the other video.
"A lot of people are like, 'Oh well, they deserve to know,'" the Chinese woman said.
"Well, they don’t deserve to die, and you can’t guarantee that’s not going to happen if you tell them."
At the same time, she also said that protecting her grandparents and posing as her sister brings her healing and that she dreams about her.
“I dream about her almost every single night, so I treat it as I am spending half of my life with her still because I see her every night," said Annie.
But still, a lie is a lie, and even a white lie deserves acknowledgment.
Annie knows that her family must know. Sooner or later, it's just a matter of time.
Then on December 2024, she finally has the courage to tell the truth. She shared this in a TikTok video, with tears in her eyes.
"POV: You finally told your family that your twin sister passed away five years ago, and they took down every single family photo that had her in it (which is pretty much every photo in their home,) she wrote in the video's caption.
The last time she checked, there were at least 17 photos of her at her grandparents' house.
It's worth noting that Annie has a playlist she names "twins," where she put together the videos she made about her deceased twin. It's also worth noting that Annie is a social media influencer with a substantial amount of followers.
She frequently endorses beauty products, among others.