Chinese granny creates live stream videos to help husband recover from Alzheimer’s

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Recently, a live-streaming room named “Happy Granny,” hosted by an elderly couple, has drawn the public attention and gained more than 21,000 fans from all over China.

Everyday, 76-year-old Cao Xuemei showed up in the live-streaming room with her husband Cui to share their daily activities to many viewers. Cao's husband has Alzheimer’s disease and can hardly express himself. But through these videos, Cao claimed that her husband's condition has been getting better.

"Happy Granny" is not your usual live streaming channel in China. Energetic youths or beautiful girls often host live videos. Almost 83% of live streaming hosts are aged 17 to 33 years old, while hosts aged above 46 only account for 2%.

The "Happy Granny" live-streaming room./Photo via CCTV

Viewers enjoy the jokes that Cui makes - repeating what his wife say and making lots of mistakes. Cui also cannot remember his real age and position at present. Although Cui had no idea where he is or who he is, he has never forgotten the name of his wife.

The elder couple is doing live-streaming./Photo via CCTV

The idea of doing a live-streaming was from their granddaughter since the elder couple both enjoy watching television programs and Cao once had a dream of becoming a TV star.

Live streaming for the past one year, the elder couple have learned many new techniques as well as new words. Cao even figured out some solutions, such as brain teasers and quiz, to train grandpa’s thinking capability while interacting with their viewers.

Cao was indeed a "Happy Granny" as she noticed Cui's memory and mental state improving. He could now talk about his past using simple sentences and can give correct answers to his wife's questions.

While most people do live videos to amuse their audience, the old couple consider it the best way to deliver positivity to children. From winter to summer, spring to autumn, no matter what weather it is outside, it is sunny day in granny’s live-streaming room. She treats all young viewers as her children and wishes them to be encouraged by their story.

One netizen said, "It is the look of love"./Photo via CCTV

Netizens have widely appreciated the story of the two elders. Weibo user @Snowxuehui88 thought it is "positive engery and should be promoted." User @Ersansiyw said, “It is the look of love”, while @Bakeya955 said, “I just cried when watching the video. Like what the granny said, happiness is what we make it.”