REALITY TV
TV
MOVIES
MUSIC
CELEBRITY
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use Accuracy & Fairness Corrections & Clarifications Ethics Code Your Ad Choices
© MEAWW All rights reserved
MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Mom who found heartwarming photos of late granddad on Google Street View 'virtually visits' him every year

Victor Austin died from Alzheimer's at the age of 84 in 2014 and the picture of him staring angrily at the car dates back to 2009
PUBLISHED SEP 24, 2022
(Reprensentational photo, Justin Sullivan/Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)
(Reprensentational photo, Justin Sullivan/Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)

ECCLES, ENGLAND: Thanks to Google Street View, a granddad has been immortalized after he was snapped standing outside his bungalow before his death. A mother named Michala Burrluck, who describes herself as a “Granddad's girl,” revealed that she coped with her granddad’s death by looking at his photos on Google Street View.
 
The granddad named Victor Austin died from Alzheimer's at the age of 84 in 2014 and the picture of him staring angrily at the car as it drove down his street dates back to 2009. Michala Burrluck was left shattered after her grandfather's death. According to The Daily Mail, Michala decided to take a trip down memory lane on Google Street View and look up his house. He lived just one street away for 30 years from where Michala grew up.
 
READ MORE
The REAL story behind the horrifying Google Maps killer clown pic that shook the internet

Secret prison to censored island, Google Maps users creeped out by weird locations

A visitor writes on a chalkboard on September 26, 2012 at the official opening party of the Google offices in Berlin, Germany. Although the American company holds 95% of the German search engine market share and already has offices in Hamburg and Munich, its new offices on the prestigious Unter den Linden avenue are its first in the German capital. The Internet giant has been met with opposition in the country recently by the former president's wife, who has sued it based on search results for her name that she considers derogative.  The European Commission has planned new data privacy regulations in a country where many residents opted in to have their homes pixeled out when the company introduced its Street View technology.
A visitor writes on a chalkboard on September 26, 2012, at the official opening party of the Google offices in Berlin, Germany (Adam Berry/Getty Images)

The mother of two was more than happy when she spotted Victor in an all-brown ensemble. In the pictures, the old man can be seen with his hand on his waist staring into the site's van's camera lens. Michala said that he seemed unimpressed by the car's presence. Cars driving down the quiet lane were something that always annoyed Victor when he was alive.
 
Michala Burrluck also bumped into other images where Victor can be seen waving to someone and then gazing into the camera. Michala checks the Street View each July 30, the day she first noticed his pic. She revealed that she got a bit emotional after she made the discovery shortly after his death. According to the Daily Mail, she shared the tradition on Facebook on September 12 and it soon got an overwhelming response from social media users.

The Google Maps app is seen on an Apple iPhone 4S on December 13, 2012 in Fairfax, California. Three months after Apple removed the popular Google Maps from its operating system to replace it with its own mapping software, a Google Maps app has been added to the iTunes store. Apple Maps were widely panned in tech reviews and among customers, the fallout resulting in the dismissal of the top executive in charge of Apple's mobile operating system.
The Google Maps app is seen on an Apple iPhone 4S on December 13, 2012, in Fairfax, California (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Speaking of the picture, Michala asserted, “I drive down the road on Google Street View a few times a year and it is really comforting, it's a bit emotional talking about it.” She continued, “I like it when you can see him in the background, then you get closer and closer and see him standing there. You think "ah grandad's still there, he's outside his bungalow". She further stated, “I was a real grandad's girl, we were always really close. He'd play practical jokes on us and he was quite the character, everybody knew him.”
 
Talking about discovering the picture on Google Street View, Michala said, “I first noticed him when I was looking at our house and then found his, and there he was.” She added, “We all had a laugh about it at the time. Every year it comes back up on my Facebook memories and I'll check if he's still there” concluding, “Sometimes when I'm just on Google Street View I'll just have a check too. It's nice to know there's part of the internet with him still on there.”
 
Victor lived with his wife Doris Austin at the bungalow until she died in 2001 aged 70. He then moved into a care home in 2012 as his Alzheimer's worsened. Michala's post read, “My grandad is still outside his house. He died about eight years ago and was in a home two years prior to this, but it is lovely to just virtually drive down his road and see him.”

RELATED TOPICS AUSTIN NEWS
POPULAR ON MEAWW
MORE ON MEAWW