When 6-year-old Kira Neely was a baby, her grandparents moved into the house across the street in her Nashville, Tennessee, neighborhood.
Kira's mom, Sherrie Neely, says her daughter has always been close to her "Papa" and "Grandmama," so staying socially distant from them due to the coronavirus pandemic has been tough. The kindergartner, who has been off of school since March 12, had started keeping her distance from her aging grandparents even earlier in the month.
To cope with missing each other, Kira and her grandfather, Marvin Neely, 81, started having dance-offs — dance competitions where each stands on their respective sides of their street while busting some moves to a playlist of Kira's favorite songs.
Neely recently shared a video on Facebook of the duo dancing to the Jackson Five song "ABC." The sweet clip shows Kira and Marvin taking turns breaking out dance moves, watching each other's performance from across the street.
"All the changes with the virus and social distancing have just made me even more thankful and grateful to have them near," Neely said of her parents, explaining that she and her daughter have stayed away from them out of concern of being an asymptomatic carrier of COVID-19 and making them sick.
"The fact that we can still get outside and have fun from a distance means everything to us, and helps to give us a sense of normalcy in such a crazy time. I'm so thankful Kira will always have these memories of her time with her Papa."
In addition to their dance-offs, Kira and Marvin kick a soccer ball across the street to each other, and the 6-year-old makes chalk drawings in her driveway for her grandparents to view from a distance.
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"My dad also enjoys just bringing a chair outside and watching her play in the yard," said Neely, who is a single mom. "But both my parents and Kira both say the thing they miss most are the hugs."
