Woman with Alzheimer’s Disease, Who Went Viral for Talking to Her Reflection, Dies at 86

Betty Pettit, who gained viral fame for sharing her journey with Alzheimer’s disease, died at age 86 on July 19.

Her youngest son, Josh Pettit, who managed Betty’s social media accounts on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, announced the news in a Facebook post. The announcement came 11 years after the Mooresville, North Carolina, resident was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

“This has been a journey and we are so grateful for all the love and support our family has received,” he wrote. “We will continue to share about this horrible disease and try to help as many people as we can who are dealing with this.”

On July 28, Josh also took to Instagram to share a photo of him holding hands with his mom before she died.

“On the left holding mom’s hand in January of this year. On the right July 17th. Two days before her death. We put her to bed. I went and sat with her,” he wrote. “She held my hand and just talked and talked. I couldn’t understand anything she said but when I would respond she was happy I was listening to whatever she was telling me.”

“Keeping a loved one in your home at the end is not for the faint of heart. It’s a lot. But you have moments like that. Joy in the final days and for that I have no regrets in the care we provided. 😢💜,” he added.

According to Betty’s obituary, a funeral service will be held at Cavin Cook Funeral Home in Mooresville on Sunday, Aug. 4.

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Betty first went viral on social media during Thanksgiving weekend in 2021 while on a family vacation in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, area. During the trip, her son Josh captured a video of her talking to another person in the mirror, not realizing that it was actually her own reflection.

“I can’t remember her name,” Betty says in the video. “That’s Betty,” Josh responds. “I’m Betty,” she answers. “Well, she’s Betty, too,” Josh continues.

Betty adds, “Okay. Alright. We got that settled. Now I’m gonna get a good night’s sleep. Thank you.”

That same day, Josh decided to post the video to TikTok. By the next morning, the video had gone viral. “Betty Pettit made a new friend at the beach,” he captioned the post, which now has over 26 million views.

Since then, the family continued to share videos of Betty online, and not long after, she started to build a following. Soon, her family had to set her up a P.O box for gifts she would receive.

“We had a little stretch last night where we opened a bunch of things and it was like Christmas. She enjoyed it. ‘Ohhhh, this is nice … Who sent that?’ And we just say, ‘It’s one of your fans,’ or ‘one of your friends on the internet.’ And she goes, ‘Wow!’ She enjoys the attention,” Josh told the Charlotte Observer.

In the same interview from December 2022, Betty’s husband Bob reflected on his wife’s rise to fame.

“I couldn’t figure out why people would be interested in it,” he told the outlet. “But then I guess we began to realize how it was great for awareness.”

“We realized we had the opportunity to actually shine a light on this disease that a lot of people deal with but that a lot of other people don’t know about. If you haven’t had first-hand experience, you don’t understand. And people legitimately asked questions, like, ‘Does she really not know that’s herself in the mirror? Is this fake?’ ” Josh added.

According to the obituary, Betty was one of the Top 50 Fundraisers globally for the Alzheimer’s Association, raising over $70,000 for the disease.

Prior to being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she was also diagnosed with lung cancer and kidney cancer in 2014.