A woman was furious over her neighbor’s ‘midnight bowling.’ Then she met the 87-year-old behind it.

Heidi Widmer, a 35-year-old middle school teacher who posts as @omgitsheidiii, drove seven days across the country with her dog after a divorce, leaving Buffalo for a fresh start in Los Angeles. She moved into a Culver City apartment in July.

Her first night, something upstairs kept her awake.

“It sounded like somebody just took a bowling ball and went over and over,” she told ABC7.

It went on for weeks, and she was ready to go up and say something.

Then she ran into her neighbor in the hallway. Carole, 86, British, and living with Parkinson’s disease, was carrying recyclables and shaking so badly she dropped them outside Widmer’s door.

“That’s her walker,” Widmer said tearfully of the noise in a video she posted afterward.

She helped pick up the recycling and asked Carole whether she had family nearby. She filmed the exchange for one of her posts.

“Hey, Carole, you got family?”

“No,” Carole said.

Widmer went up to see the apartment. According to ABC7, Carole had been living alone for years, too proud to ask anyone for help, and the place had gotten away from her.

So Widmer started taking out the trash twice a week and cooking for her once a week, as she described on the GoFundMe she later set up. She took Carole’s case to the landlord, who brought the unit up to standard with a new fridge, a new stove, air conditioning, and new carpet, and she arranged deep cleanings. She’s also been helping Carole work through medical benefits and legal paperwork. The GoFundMe, which Widmer says covers the daily needs that Social Security and Medicaid don’t, has raised more than $93,000.

Videos of the two of them have garnered nearly 30 million views, and Widmer said she’s been receiving letters from strangers all over.

Carole didn’t want to be on camera, but she spoke to ABC7 by phone.

“Heidi has come into my life, and I am deeply grateful,” she said.

A couple of days before that, Widmer had asked her what she thought would’ve happened if nobody had come up the stairs.

“She just looked at me straight in the eye and said, ‘I would’ve struggled until somebody did,’” Widmer said.

They’ve settled on terms for what to call each other. Carole told the station that Widmer is her granddaughter.

“Yeah, I’m her granddaughter,” Widmer said.

Follow Heidi Widmer (@omgitsheidiii) for more entertainment and lifestyle content.

Source: Upworthy