Six years after her abuela’s death, Jasmine Dena – a 19-year-old woman known on Twitter as @pettingpuppies – made a heartwarming discovery. “I found out my abuela who passed away years ago was a freaking poet, and I’m reading her poetry… turn the page… she wrote a poem about me,” Dena tweeted. The tweet was accompanied by two photos – one of the poem titled “Jazmine” (which includes an especially touching note at the bottom) and the other of the young woman in tears.
When she first read the poem, she felt emotional. “I felt such unconditional love,” she told Remezcla. “I wanted to thank her and tell her I love and miss her so so so so much.”
Since Jazzy shared her story on June 27, the tweet has gone on to receive 171,000 likes and 45,000 retweets. Jasmine has also given us a little more information about her moving story. Her abuela, Elisa Guerrero, passed away in 2011 when Dena was just 13 after a long battle with cancer. The poem was published in Antologia poetica del jerezano ausente – a book that’s seemingly no longer in print.
Jasmine – who translated the poem into English – recently got into poetry herself because of her friends. “My tía told me at a family party that [my abuela] was a poet, so I had to find the book,” she added. “And I did after like 2 hours!” Dena’s unsure about when her grandmother wrote the poem, but she believes she must have been younger than 5 years old. Jasmine is now determined to preserve all of her abuela’s poetry through an online book.
And if you thought this story couldn’t get sweeter, you’d be wrong. Dena told her grandfather about all the sweet responses her tweet elicited, and that brought him some happiness, too.
June 30 at 5:05 p.m.: We have updated this post with additional information about Jasmine Dena’s story.