3 Grandmas Have Been Snapchatting with Grandkids Every Day for 8 Years (Exclusive)

• For approximately eight years, these three grandmothers have exchanged Snapchats with their grandchildren — and have no plans of stopping
• Speaking with PEOPLE, the family members discuss their special bond and share their favorite snaps
• “It just made my heart happy,” says Linda Balzer of receiving daily messages from her granddaughter Delainee

It’s an age-old problem as a grandparent: How can you keep up with your grandchildren as they get older, as they move away, as their lives change?

The answer, at least for these three grandmas, has been simple — Snapchat.

Sure, the photo-centric social media app is popular with young people. But not just young people, as 72-year-old Sherry Specht knows well.

“I’m the cool grandma,” she tells PEOPLE in an interview alongside her granddaughter, Morgan Specht, 24, who calls Sherry her “best friend.” 

Sherry, Bunny Fox and Linda Balzer have all been exchanging posts (or snaps) with their young family members, each day, for nearly eight years or longer. They’ve shared everything from weather reports and selfies to updates on their grandkids’ love lives, and they aren’t stopping now. 

Tanner Fox, 20, doesn’t need a weather app because his 82-year-old grandma, Bunny, sends him a picture of the thermometer at her Pennsylvania home at 6 a.m to start their daily chats. (“Grandparents don’t want to interfere with their kids, but they would like to know what’s going on,” Bunny says.)

For Balzer, 76, a native of Vancouver, Canada, granddaughter Delainee Tomkin’s heartfelt messages helped her get through treatment for ovarian cancer five years ago.

“It was just wonderful to have her every day, send me a note,” Balzer tells PEOPLE of her 3,043-day Snapchat streak with her 23-year-old granddaughter. “It just made my heart happy.” 

Granddaughter’s Support Starts a New Ritual

When Balzer isn’t busy with her local Rotary Club, she likes to see what her granddaughter Delainee, a server and cheerleader, is up to.

The pair have been exchanging messages and photos for years, allowing Balzer to follow along with Delainee as she travels across the globe with Vancouver All Stars, a competitive gym. Delainee most recently participated in a national championship in Dallas.

“They win a lot,” says the proud grandma, who earned the nickname “Jammie” years ago. “She went away to Chile for cheer, and it was exciting to see all those photos.” 

Now healthy after her cancer diagnosis, Balzer likes to hike every day. During her treatments, which began after she learned the “shocking” news in 2020, her granddaughter was by her side.

That Christmas, Delainee wrote Balzer letters to encourage her. Delainee says she supplemented the letters with a photo or fun update about her day — including her love life.

Balzer was one of the first to know when Delainee started dating her boyfriend. “She Snapchats me and she’s like, ‘So, who are you dating?’ ” Delainee recalls. (“He just adores her,” Balzer says of the young man. “They’re young, but it really is lovely.”)

Boys aside, the cheerleader says their more than 3,000-day streak on the app has only made them “stronger.”

“Obviously, with mental health, you can’t feel 100% all the time,” says Delainee. “So, you can see the emotions throughout these snaps that we send each other.”

Her Jammie feels a similar connection.  

“I’m just so blessed that Delainee would spend even that moment every day to send me a, ‘Hi, how are you?’ ” Balzer says. “She’s my girl.” 

A Weather Report from Bunny

Though Bunny didn’t know how to use Snapchat when she first got her tablet, now she “knows more than I do,” says grandson Tanner.

Some eight years ago, the sophomore at Pennsylvania State University was just 12 years old when he started messaging with his grandma, which has helped them stay in touch since Tanner lives almost two hours away from home.

Part of that habit is Bunny sending a picture of her thermostat every morning after she has a cup of coffee. She’s just checking in, of course.

“Our weather in Pennsylvania is bad, so I usually make sure he knows how cold or how warm it is out,” she says. “So he makes sure he dresses warm.”

While Tanner may not always listen to his grandma’s suggestions, he loves keeping in touch. So does she.

“I look forward to him snapping me every day,” says Bunny. Once she gets a response, she thinks, “Okay, now my day is set.”

The messaging app also helps Bunny feel like she’s connected with the rest of the family on their trips abroad now that she no longer likes to travel.

It was through Snapchat that relatives were alerted to potential trouble while they were vacating in the Dominican Republic in 2023: Tanner and his family realized that Bunny had been inactive on the app for a couple of hours, which was unusual.

When they couldn’t reach her by phone, Tanner was worried.

“I was calling my other grandma to come into her house to see if she was lying on the ground,” Tanner recalls. Fortunately, Bunny was just late returning home after she went to a restaurant with other family members. 

“I came back and my wife’s son was sitting on my front porch,” Bunny remembers. “He says, ‘Where the heck have you been?’ ” 

Even when she’s safely at home, Tanner likes to hear from his grandma so they can keep up their Snapchat routine.

Tanner even drove to her house at 1 in the morning when he thought their streak (now 2,862 days and counting) would time out. “I’m like, this can’t end like this,” he says. 

A Pair of Eagles Fans

Morgan and Sherry Specht are fiercely dedicated to the Philadelphia Eagles — their home team — and each other. 

“She’s been my best friend from the day she was born,” Sherry says of Morgan, an acquisitions analyst at a real estate fund.

It was Sherry’s idea to start Snapchatting nine years ago, and they continue to share moments each day. One of the recent highlights was the 2025 Super Bowl, in which the Eagles dominated the Kansas City Chiefs, winning by 18 points. 

“I live right on the parkway, so the parade went past my apartment,” says Morgan of watching the team’s celebratory procession, including a sighting of one of the Eagles’ famed running backs that she soon shared with her grandma. “She got some pictures of Saquon Barkley on the parade bus — I got to keep her in the loop. I knew she loves the Birds.” 

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Sherry enjoys reading, but getting snaps from Morgan are the highlight of her day. Morgan will send her updates while she’s traveling (selfies in front of the Taj Mahal, shots of the pyramids of Giza) or out in the city with her friends.

In return, Sherry prefers to send pictures — and isn’t afraid to use filters. She says she likes to soften her wrinkles and is a fan of Bitmojis.

When it comes to tea, Sherry gets the most. 

“She’s always my loudest and biggest supporter,” says Morgan. “So, what better friend would you want? I always just want to tell her everything first.” 

Sherry voiced her approval for Morgan’s new boyfriend. But when a person in Morgan’s life does something problematic, Sherry stands by her granddaughter. 

“When we start to hate one of the boys, she also knows to unfollow them on Instagram,” Morgan jokes. “She knows all the drama, all of it.”

Sherry agrees. “What goes on between me and her stays with me and her,” she says. “We call it the grandparents’ code. I back her up no matter what she says.”