Woman was sad her late mom would never get to meet her fiancé — until she stumbled on some old pictures

Destiny works in mysterious ways, and love goes hand in hand. A Chinese legend talks about the “red thread of fate” that ties 2 souls together from birth to death — it may bend, but never break — and the story of Sandy and Wade Critides makes us believe in it. Sandy was heartbroken after her mother’s passing, but the sorrow hit her harder at the thought of never being able to introduce her mother to her future husband. Out of the blue, on a random trip, her heart was finally calmed. Wade Critides, who goes by @wellnesswithwade, shared a video documenting the unbelievable incident on his Instagram.

The death of a loved one can be one of the most soul-crushing things we have to go through — it usually hits us harder when we realize that they will be absent from all the best parts of our life as they pan out in the future. Something similar happened with Sandy when she tragically lost her mom at the age of 23, leaving her heartbroken and grieving. To take her mind off the loss, she decided to visit her mother’s best friend, who was like a “second mother to her,” on the East Coast — not knowing what her late mom was orchestrating from beyond.

“You see, we’d known each other since our moms were pregnant with us — built-in baby best friends,” Wade wrote in the caption. “Even after my family moved to the East Coast and hers stayed in California, we remained family friends. There was never a romantic spark… until that visit.” He showed her around Boston over Memorial Day weekend in 2013 and fell in love with her soon after, but chose to keep it to himself and give her the space to heal. What he didn’t know was that she was developing feelings too! Soon, he wrote her a letter, expressing how he felt about her, and concluded it with “We should make a pact to get married one day,” — and 5 years later, in 2018, they did! “Turns out, her mom did meet her future husband… since we were in diapers, literally,” concluded Wade.

The wholesome story makes us believe in the idea of soulmates and validates the famous “red thread of fate” philosophy. Research by Akapol Varchirawatt and others studied the famous Chinese theory, which posits that each person is born with an invisible red thread tied around their pinky finger, leading to their soulmate. The color likely indicates 'happiness' in Chinese culture, with it being heavily featured in weddings and large celebrations. 

The wholesome video was enough to tear viewers up. @simplyysurya expressed, “Chills and tears. This is beyond beautiful,” while @s_tollers wrote, “So beautiful. I feel that this is the basis for a movie…” @kaitwarsimage shared, “Okay, I’m pregnant and extremely emotional, so thanks for making me bawl my eyes out! This is so sweet,” and @fepandola had a similar reaction: “My post-partum self cannot handle this- crying and chills! You two are so amazing!” @rnfqueen expressed, “Beautiful, and this makes me happy that your wife was able to find such intimate joy knowing her Mom led her to you,” and @gracieluufreebushh recalled a personal incident, “I was literally telling some friends of mine your story yesterday because they're best friends with 2 kids each, one has 2 boys and the other has 2 girls. Each set was born in the same year.”

You can follow Wade Critides (@wellnesswithwade) on Instagram for more relationship content.