A 12.25 N.Y. Daily News story reported that this 12.20 video of an Indiana woman, Eva Goeb, experiencing an emotional meltdown upon catching sight of Lily, a newly-adopted granddaughter, had attracted almost 4 million viewers. Right now the count is at 4,464,053.
The occasion was a surprise holiday visit by Goeb’s son Donny, a military officer stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham, and his wife Miranda. The couple hadn’t told Goeb they’d managed to adopt and decided “hey, let’s surprise her!” I’ll never understand people who go to all lengths just so they can watch friends or family members go into shock when the big moment happens. Donny obviously succeeded in this regard, and perhaps with a secondary motive. The YouTube page announces that Donny is looking for gofundme assistance to get through “over $30,000” in adoption costs.
HE reaction: It’s very nice that an infant girl has been adopted by good parents and that grandma is overwhelmed, etc. But my first reaction was to feel sympathy for Lily. Imagine her feelings of shock and perhaps fear as Goeb, obviously a practiced emotional showboater, shrieks and slobbers. In my eyes Goeb is the kind of gunboat mom who will suffocate you with affection and attention, and who will always insist that her feelings be exhibited to the max and therefore known to the world (or at least to the neighbors).
Conchata Ferrell played a smother-mom like this in Oliver Stone‘s Heaven and Earth. And George Roy Hill‘s Slaughterhouse Five (’72) featured two such characters — Sharon Gans as Billy Pilgrim’s fat wife Valencia, and Lucille Benson as Billy’s mom.
Oh, and only rubes shoot videos in a vertical position. The Daily News story says Eva lives in the southern Indiana town of Franklin, which suggests that Donny was raised there also. Do the math.
