‘She’s watching over Shamu’: Man comes clean about losing grandma’s ashes at SeaWorld when he was a kid, he replaced them with pepper

Entrusting the ashes of a family member to a fourth grader sounds like a recipe for disaster and that’s because it is. A man has gone viral on TikTok after explaining how he managed to lose his great grandmother’s ashes while on a trip to SeaWorld.

TikToker Adrian confessed that he could not keep the lie going on any longer after carrying his dark secret around for years. In the viral video, which has received almost 2 million likes and 15 million views, he explained his family’s tradition which involved passing the ashes of Adrain’s great grandmother to different members of the family to hold on to at different times.

The ashes are held in a little silver container attached to a chain. For the first time in many years they have been passed back around to Adrian, but he knows something the rest of the family don’t, these aren’t his great grandma’s ashes.

You see, the last time he was given the necklace he was a fourth grader who definitely wasn’t prepared for the responsibility of carrying the ashes. He admits that he took the necklace on a trip to SeaWorld where he had a blast on all the rides and other attractions. Towards the end of the trip he came to the realization that the container was now filled with water instead of the ashes that should have been in there.

“Grandma stayed at SeaWorld that year,” Adrian jokes, adding, “she’s watching over Shamu right now.” He then confesses that, to cover his tracks, he filled the container with black pepper to make it look like grandma was still in there.

Adrian’s family finds out

They say the truth will set you free and the confession video quickly went viral meaning it was only a matter of time before Adrian’s family found out. The TikToker claimed “I’m pretty sure this happened to another generation besides me, I’m just the first to admit it,” as he poured what he believed to be pepper from his grandma’s container over his food.

People on TikTok were rightly horrified but some warned that those containers often get refilled with ashes from the urn. Others weren’t quite convinced this wasn’t a skit, which is entirely possible, but it also sounds ridiculously specific enough to be true.

In a second video Adrian confirmed that his family was aware of his confession and that they had told him they’ve been refilling the container for years. In fact, his great grandma’s ashes have been dwindling for years and, as per tradition, the last person to fill the container with the remainder of grandma’s ashes has to take them to Italy.

While the revelation comes as relief to Adrian, it also means that “pepper” he put on his food might have actually been his grandma’s ashes, which is just a whole new level of messed up.