He Lost His Mom at 15. Now, 25 Years Later, He's Working to Keep Her Memory Alive Every Day (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Andrew Briedis with his mom.Photo:Samuel Briedis

Samuel Briedis

Andrew Briediswas only 15 years old when his mother, Bonnie Kathleen Briedis, died at 54 on Nov. 16, 1999, 14 years after her breast cancer diagnosis. Now, 25 years later, the screenwriter, who currently lives in New York City, is sharing stories of his late mother on TikTok in hopes of keeping her memory alive.

Speaking to PEOPLE, Briedis explains that he has been posting about his mom since the early days of social media. The first video he made for TikTok, posted on Mother’s Day 2021, featured a story about her being his baseball coach while he was growing up. Since then, he has continued to share stories about her online and pays a special tribute to her each year on the anniversary of her passing.

“It’s one of the very few universal human experiences, and there’s no way around it, and there’s no way to train for it,” he says. “I think it’s important to talk about it online because you get a sense of how truly different the individual experiences can be, and that helps people see that there is no wrong way to grieve.”

“Sharing my mom’s story has helped me reflect on my own grief journey and I’m really grateful I chose to embrace,” he adds. “Losing my mom is a huge part of my identity, and that has kept her alive, but it’s also given me a really healthy relationship with grief.”

“I was really touched because it’s not as easy to go viral these days,” he adds. “You really need a tremendous amount of support from the viewers, so seeing the numbers grow was really a reflection of how people were responding to my mom.”

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In the video, Briedis talked about details from his mom’s final days that he recently learned from his dad, including how sad she was that she wouldn’t be able to watch Briedis grow up. Along with this, he jokingly talked about how his mom would have hated TikTok, and how he can’t even imagine trying to explain it to her.

“That really hit me in a way I couldn’t appreciate when I was younger, because not much had happened yet,” he tells PEOPLE. “But now, there have been 25 years worth of things that have happened. I moved to New York, got married, and we raised a dog for as many years as I knew my mom.”

Andrew Briedis with his mom as a kid.Samuel Briedis

“Grief takes time, and evolves as you age,” he says.

“As I say in the video, I see her whenever I do something she did,” he adds. “We have a lot of the same traits. We have the same sense of humor and the same relentless anxieties. So whenever I land a good dark joke, or run back up four flights of stairs because I am convinced I forgot to lock my apartment door, I say, ‘Hi, Mom.’ That’s her winking at me.”

source: people.com