Woman Gives Long Lost Grandmother the Ashes of Her Dead Mother in Tearful Reunion (Exclusive)

When Kirby Burks mislaid her mom, she ne'er thought that heartbreak would yet lead her to nan family her mother had ever wondered astir but ne'er found.

“My mom ever told america that her existent sanction was Michelle Buchanan,” Burks, 28, tells PEOPLE. “She didn’t really want to hunt for her family because she worried what if they didn’t want immoderate narration pinch her. We respected that, but it was ever thing we wondered about.”

The wondering turned into answers years later, erstwhile an Ancestry trial brought a match. “My relative did nan Ancestry and a lucifer came backmost pinch personification named Michael Buchanan,” Burks recalls. “The first point that clicked successful my caput was to spell look connected Facebook. I searched and I couldn’t fig it out, truthful I near it alone. Later, I tried again, and this clip nan pictures matched.”

Scrolling done Facebook profiles, Burks saw features that mirrored her own. “I looked astatine his photos and I [saw] a batch of women pinch dimples, and I sewage dimples too,” she says. “Then I saw Marva, and she looked identical to my mama. I screenshotted it and sent it to my brother. He said, ‘She doesn’t look for illustration my mom, but she does look for illustration my sister Marva.’ From there, it snowballed.”

Confirmation arrived successful nan shape of a handwritten statement from decades before. “He sent maine a image of this small portion of insubstantial from backmost successful nan day,” Burks says. “It had my grandma’s sanction and said ‘expecting,’ and it had my mama’s birthday. The remainder is history. We each connected.”

That relationship took her to Arizona, wherever her grandma now lives. “Me and my siblings flew retired location and we met her,” Burks shares. “I sewage an auntie, and we’re nan only grandchildren and nan only ones pinch kids, truthful nan great-grandchildren too. It was bittersweet because I had to explicate to my grandma that her girl had passed.”

The infinitesimal remains overwhelming moreover now. “Knowing that my mom has passed, but I still person a grandma and an auntie, it blew me,” Burks tells PEOPLE. “It still feels for illustration a movie. I’ve ne'er seen cipher that looks conscionable for illustration my mama. She looks identical.”

The similarities agelong acold beyond appearance. “The benignant of earrings they deterioration to nan lipstick that they deterioration — it is nan same,” Burks says. “Everything is crazy. Everything.”

Burks wanted her grandma to person thing much than stories. “She told maine she tried to hunt for my mom for 15 years, but my adopted grandma changed my mom’s sanction from Michelle Buchanan to Denise Michelle,” Burks explains. “Nobody ever came and sewage her original commencement certificate, truthful thing tied together. My bosom conscionable told me, springiness her immoderate of these ashes.”

Choosing a greenish urn, her grandmother’s favourite color, made nan gift moreover much personal. “It was successful my bosom to do it,” Burks says. “I felt for illustration it was needed because I really consciousness for illustration they some needed each other. My mama had a batch of struggles, and I consciousness for illustration if they knew each other, their lives wouldn’t person been nan measurement they were. My grandma had struggles too. They needed each other.”

That powerful infinitesimal became nan attraction of her viral TikTok. In nan video, Burks captured nan instant her grandma received her daughter’s ashes, giving millions of viewers a glimpse into a reunion that had been decades successful nan making.

"She had a bosom of gold,” Burks tells PEOPLE of her mother, who died connected April 2, 2020. “She conscionable went done a batch of tests and tribulations that brought her down. She ever said she was going to constitute a book, truthful this opportunity correct present is existent large for me. I consciousness for illustration I request to stock my mama’s communicative because I really went done each azygous point pinch her.”

“People who person loved ones that are addicted to things, nan only point you tin really do is emotion them done it,” Burks says. “That was my mama, and I stuck pinch her done nan full process. Just emotion them done it.”

Finding her grandma aft specified a nonaccomplishment reshaped her position of grief. “I precocious had a girl who’s 2, and it feels for illustration a reward,” Burks says. “For going done nan hardest point I’ve ever been done successful my life, it feels for illustration I recovered my mama. I consciousness highly blessed. It gives maine a different type of motivation.”

She says motherhood has strengthened her determination. “I can’t springiness up,” Burks shares. “I want my girl to retrieve my mom and transportation connected her legacy, moreover though she won’t meet her. It’s important to maine that she knows.”

She says nan consequence she's received from sharing her travel has been peculiarly moving. “I’m a very heavy person,” Burks tells PEOPLE. “I emotion to perceive different people’s stories and thief wherever I can. A batch of group told maine I healed [my grandmother]. She calls maine her sunshine. I cognize it whitethorn not person healed everything, but I cognize erstwhile she wakes up successful nan morning, she feels good."

The reunion besides reshaped really she sees herself. “I decidedly consciousness for illustration a caller person,” Burks says. “Meeting my aunt and my grandma was 1 of nan champion moments of my life. Just to spot her and cognize that I still person a portion of my mom present — it was beautiful. Sometimes erstwhile I talk to her, it feels for illustration I’m talking to my mama.”

She isn’t nan only 1 who felt nan impact. “We each went — maine and my 2 brothers,” Burks explains. “I told my grandma, if my brothers don’t prime up nan phone, don’t worry. As agelong arsenic you’re connected pinch me, you’re connected to them.”

Burks treasures nan memories of that trip. “It was 1 of nan champion moments of my life,” she says. “I’ll show nan communicative complete and complete again if I person to. It was beautiful.”

Looking ahead, Burks hopes nan enslaved only deepens. “I conscionable want to proceed to turn pinch her and study astir our family history,” she says. “I want to make memories. And I want america to beryllium capable to stock our communicative because I cognize it tin thief personification else.”

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For Burks, nan connection she carries guardant is simple. “If you sewage a family personnel that’s an addict, emotion them done it,” she tells PEOPLE. “People will springiness up, but I saw my mama connected top, and past I saw her spell to nan bottom. At first, it made maine upset, but past I realized she went done things I ne'er did. Everybody doesn’t woody pinch worldly nan aforesaid way. This is my mama, and I’m gonna thrust pinch my mama.”

In her words, nan emotion she carries is what matters most. “I consciousness for illustration that’s really nan astir important thing,” Burks says. “Just emotion them done it. That’s what I did pinch my mama, and that’s what I’ll ever do.

If you aliases personification you cognize is struggling pinch constituent abuse, please interaction nan SAMHSA helpline astatine 1-800-662-HELP.