Ryan Harman lost her mom to cancer last year.
In an essay for her English class, she divulged the heart-wrenching journey from diagnosis to death — bringing the internet and her West Virginia University professor to tears.
Harman shared the lengthy text in a viral TikTok video this week, garnering more than 13 million views and 45,000 teary responses.
At a time when her life was “supposed to be at its peak,” everything fell apart, she wrote, explaining that her mom was diagnosed with sarcoma, which invades bones and soft tissue, in 2021.
Harman went on to write that her mom got to see her and her sister graduate from high school, but it wasn’t until the newly minted graduate was on a celebratory beach trip with friends that things went downhill.
Her mom stopped replying to texts and calls, and when Harman returned home, her mom was bedridden with a 75% collapsed spine due to tumor growth.
Dedicated to a life of no regrets, Harman spent as much time as possible with her mom, laying in bed with her, holding her hand.
“She told us, ‘When I take my last breath, I want you guys to dance, don’t cry, dance,'” Harman wrote, expressing shock that she would be losing her mother at just 18.
In the summer of 2022, Harman’s siblings attended a Jason Aldean concert while she opted to stay home — that ended up being the night their mom died. Harman and her father rang them “about 20 times” until someone picked up.
When they arrived home, Harman’s sister said: “We didn’t answer your calls because we were dancing. We were dancing when mom took her last breath, just like she wanted.”
That was the line that choked up viewers.
“The dancing part got me,” one viewer admitted. “I am so sorry for your loss.”
“‘We didn’t answer your calls because we were dancing,'” another quoted. “I lost it.”
“I can’t stop crying,” confessed someone else.
“This broke my heart in the most beautiful way,” a TikToker agreed.
Some invested readers even made their own videos in response, many showing themselves tearing up or fully crying.
“No bc that essay deserves an award,” one user wrote on a clip.
“Me sobbing in the middle of work bc I read the essay,” shared another person on their own video. “‘We didn’t answer bc we were dancing.'”
The Post has reached out to Harman for comment.
“There is nothing I wish more than to be able to pick up the phone and call my mom, but I feel peace that she is watching over me and sees my every move,” Harman wrote.
“I celebrate her existence everyday and am so incredibly grateful to have the best Angel looking over me,” she concluded the essay.