A single mother-of-three had no clue that a regular clean-up of her toddlers would put her in an unexpected, albeit hilarious, situation.
Monica Long, also known as @molo.solo on TikTok, was preparing for her youngest son’s birthday party when she stumbled upon her three boys getting into a mess. What she assumed was dirt covered their little bodies and was strewn all over the floor — and one of her son’s lips was also white.
Highlights
- Monica Long vacuumed what she thought was dirt after her sons made a mess — but it turned out to be her grandfather's ashes instead.
- Her young sons opened and spilled the ashes from a small sand container.
- The incident was shared on TikTok, and the video quickly went viral.
- Monica's family thought the entire mishap was a hilarious situation.
She simply vacuumed it all up, made sure her children looked presentable, and went about her day. After all, she’s come to expect these little commotions as part of her everyday routine.
Monica Long faced an unexpected surprise after vacuuming up what she thought was dirt from her boys' mess
Image credits: molo.solo
“I’m a single mom to three boys that are on the spectrum, ages 14, 3 and 2, so our house is wild,” she told People. “You never know what one day to the next is going to be like. My younger two are toddlers, so they’re just getting into everything these days.”
Fast forward a few days later — and that’s when Monica learned what really happened.
At first, it was a baffling moment when she discovered that the container holding her grandfather’s ashes was empty. But the puzzle pieces soon clicked in place not long after, especially upon the realization that her youngest son had figured out how to open bottles “by biting and unscrewing them.”
“PawPaw was on a shelf, out of their reach, but they’re climbers. They climbed their little way up and got ahold of him,” she explained.
Image credits: molo.solo
“I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, they got PawPaw and I vacuumed him up.’ I couldn’t believe this happened. I love them to death but oh my goodness, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
Monica later added, “They might have eaten part of their grandfather, which is horrifying.”
Finding the entire situation fairly hilarious, and of course, shocking, the mother-of-three recorded a video for her sister — which later led to a surprising viral video.
“I sent that video clip to my sister initially, and she made a joke about 2025 starting off wild. I shared it on Facebook knowing friends would think it was funny,” she revealed.
The dirt turned out to be her PawPaw's ashes
Image credits: molo.solo
Little did she know, the video would take off, garnering more than 2M likes online.
She also decided to share it with her own grandmother “MawMaw,” who had a good laugh out of the light-hearted story.
“She goes, ‘I bet PawPaw would have got a kick out of that,’ and then tells me, ‘Don’t worry, we have more PawPaw,’” said Monica.
“I just never thought I’d have to tell my sweet little grandma that I vacuumed her husband up and he’s in a Shark vacuum. So she got a kick out of that and my daddy laughed too. He goes, ‘Oh gosh, it would be those two little ones that got PawPaw.’”
The situation was outrageous enough to share on social media
Image credits: molo.solo
As the video blew up on social media, Monica shared that she “spent the whole week laughing” at a couple of the responses, as reported by the outlet.
“I mean… I mean this with absolute love, I feel like PawPaw had a great day,” one of the comment reads, which had amassed more than 15K likes.
“literally what do u do in this situation,” another hilariously asked.
“Pawpaw was sick of sitting in your house and made them boys let him out,” a third wrote while an additional user pointed out, “PawPaw lives on in the boys digestive tract.”
“pawpaw got to play with his boys,” said a TikToker. “i don’t know your pawpaw but that would have been what my pops enjoyed the most.”
Image credits: molo.solo
And while there was the occasional hate comment, Monica made it clear it wasn’t a bother to her.
“The majority of the people had something funny to say and just added to the humor of the whole situation,” she stated. “People had negative comments, but you just let it roll off your back. Everybody’s entitled to their opinions and that’s fine.”
She later clarified why her grandfather’s ashes were in a “carnival colorful sand container,” as described by the comments.
Most were able to poke fun at the viral video
Image credits: molo.solo
“I tried to make some follow-up videos to answer some repetitive questions. They asked why PawPaw was in a sand art plastic bottle and I was like, ‘Well we’re not rich and he was a follower of Jesus.’”
And despite what some may see as a rather gruesome situation, Monica said she believes her PawPaw would have found the whole thing as hilarious as she did.
“This would be another story for him to laugh about,” she said.
Image credits: molo.solo
Monica’s late grandfather was a Vietnam War veteran as well as a school teacher for “many, many years.” He and his wife — Monica’s MawMaw — were house parents at children’s homes.
"They might have eaten part of their grandfather," Monica revealed
