Girl, 10, Left Alone on Birthday After Parents' Flight Delayed — and Grandma Was Ready to Go Home (Exclusive)

Quinn Valentine and her grandmother

Quinn Valentine's family story stirred up a lot of conversation on TikTok

• Quinn Valentine's grandma was watching her on her 10th birthday when her mom and brother, traveling home from Prague, got stuck en route
• Quinn's grandma didn't want to miss her flight and was ready to go home, so she did, leaving the 10-year-old alone
• Quinn tells PEOPLE what it was like to share the family memory on TikTok

Quinn Valentine never expected that sharing a family story would garner so much attention.

The TikToker, @qster14, shared a video looking back on her10th birthday in what she described as her "best storytime."

Admitting her mom hates the story, Quinn goes on to detail the time that her grandmother, in charge of watching her while her parents were away, left to return home to Connecticut — leaving the little girl alone in Ohio on her 10th birthday.

Having her grandmother watch Quinn during this trip was "pretty much a one-off thing" for the family," the content creator tells PEOPLE.

"If both of my parents had to go out of town, I would usually go spend the night at a friend's house. It was not a normal thing for my grandparents to come and watch me while my parents were out of town."

"She was a funny lady. She was very laid back," Quinn says of her grandma, who died in 2018.

The week-long arrangement was going smoothly at first. "I was in 4th or 5th grade. I went to school all week and dance after school. Other than that, my grandma and I just hung out," she recalls. "We liked watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians together."

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Quinn's family was due home days before her birthday, but a volcanic eruption in Europe impacted air travel internationally and left her family — her mom and brother in Prague and dad on a business trip — scrambling. Looking back, Quinn admits she was "pretty in the dark to what was going on."

"That Friday night, my grandmother had told my dad she was getting on her flight the next day regardless and going home. I remember talking to my dad that night, and he just said, 'We're figuring it out; don't worry about it. Somebody will be there tomorrow for your birthday.' "

"And in my head, I was like, 'Oh, well, of course, my grandma's here.' But he mentioned my mom and my brother were trying to get home," she continues. "They didn't put any stress on me. I didn't think it was a big deal at all. Meanwhile, they're all going crazy in the background."

The next morning, true to her word, Quinn's grandma got on her flight back home. When Quinn woke up, she noticed, "The TV wasn't on and it didn't smell like coffee."

"I walked downstairs, knowing she was up at the crack of dawn, and I walked into the kitchen. All the lights were off. I'm like, 'This is weird.' Then I see the piece of paper on the counter."

"She had the most beautiful handwriting, so I was trying to read it but I could barely read it. The note was like, 'Quinn, I had a great week with you. I headed home this morning. Love you, Grandma,' " Quinn says, noting the "cut and dry" manner was very much her grandma's way.

Quinn looked around some more and realized she was definitely home alone, a first for her at that point.

"I wasn't upset. It was just almost like, 'Oh, this is weird,' and so I remember I went down into my basement because that's where my toys were, and I played, hung out, did whatever in the basement."

Sometime later, her doorbell rang. "I knew I wasn't allowed to answer the door, but then I got a phone call. The house phone said it was from my neighbors across the street. I answered the phone and it was their mom saying her daughter was at the door."

Quinn had no idea that her parents, in their scramble to make things right, thought to ask a neighbor for some help. Her mom emailed the neighbor from her dying Blackberry, asking for some assistance.

"I went upstairs and through the glass in the front door I could see it was her and seven or eight of my other little neighbor friends. We went over to my neighbor's house and hung out, played, went out to dinner and then I spent the night there," she says.

"I remember being like, 'Oh, this is a weird birthday.' It was fun because it was a surprise. I had no idea that this was willy-nilly planned, thrown together by my mom and my dad, coordinated in the background. I didn't even think twice, at the moment, that it was something that my parents had done to help me not be stressed out or by myself on my birthday."

When she shared her story on TikTok, Quinn was amazed to discover it went viral. Then, she realized she had to fill her mom in on what was happening.

"I called my mom and was like, 'Hey, I don't know if you saw the video I posted last night' and she was like, 'I didn't see it, but your dad came into my office this morning and told me that you posted about your 10th birthday,' and he was laughing," Quinn says.

"She's like, 'I can laugh about it now that [time passed],' but she said as a mom, 'Dude, there's never been a time where I have felt more helpless, hands tied behind my back.' There was nothing she could do in that moment and it was obviously very distressing. She's able to look back on it now and laugh about it, which I think is a miracle."

Quinn was also surprised to see that a lot of people made assumptions about how much effort her dad was putting into fixing the birthday situation.

"It's funny because, at first, most people were like, 'Oh my God, this is crazy. Hats off to your mom,' but then some people started being like, 'Well, your dad just didn't do anything. Shame on your dad.' "

Quinn says, "People come to their own conclusions and assume things. I omitted the fact that my dad's travel plans were also being affected by the volcano. He was trying to get back as well. So I felt bad — I didn't want my dad to get his feelings hurt."

Quinn imagines that her grandma would be amused by how much attention the mishap has received online.

"After this, I still had a good relationship with my grandmother until she passed away in 2018. I can see her being like, 'It is what it is,' " she says. "My grandma was a very funny lady. She had a similar sense of humor to myself — very dry humor where she'd be like, 'Yeah, so?' "

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