Oregon Man Moved Back Home from Canada After His Grandma Started Gossiping About Him: ‘I Don’t Like You Having a Friend.’

Caring for elderly family members is often a difficult yet fulfilling act. Ben Keener (@benkeener1), who relocated from Oregon to Calgary to care for his grandma, did not make this decision lightly. But after overhearing one disingenuous phone call between his grandmother and their relatives, Keener left her for good.

His first video about the story went viral. In it, Keener alleged that he moved countries to take care of his grandmother but overheard her “talking shit” about him. He wouldn’t stand for it, so he booked flight tickets twelve hours later, leaving her in Canada for the US. Many social media users were praising Keener’s courage to leave, but many more were asking for the full picture. People were curious about what his grandmother said, which ultimately prompted him to walk out.

Keener posted a day later about the full story.

“I live in the United States, my grandma lives in Canada. My grandma’s really old, so I moved to Canada to take care of her and spend time with her,” Keener explained. He didn’t want to miss the opportunity, as he believed that his grandmother was nearing her end. But then, when he moved in, Keener said that she’d driven him to the edge.

Everything was an issue for his grandma

“She hated the way I ate food, she hated the way I breathed, and she hated the way I went to the bathroom. Literally, this woman was miserable and hated everything,” Keener said. During his time in Canada, Keener said that his sole job was to be her caretaker. He didn’t necessarily enjoy his stay in Canada because he was struggling with his peers. However, he at least made one friend, Ava—he calls her his “one true friend” in the country.

“I need other social interaction other than with my grandma,” Keener said. But his grandmother didn’t seem to understand his frame of mind.

On Friday, his grandmother brought Ava up while they were at the dining table. She asked him about Ava. He said that Ava was fine and that he planned to hang out with her on Sunday.

“I don’t like you having a friend,” his grandmother told him. The response irked Keener, who was already having a hard time making connections in Calgary.

“What is wrong with you? Normal people have friends,” he said. Keener confessed that he felt mad at the moment and confronted his grandmother. It didn’t help that he only had one friend, but even that seemed to be a major issue for her.

“I don’t want you hanging out with friends,” his grandmother said. For some reason, his grandmother stormed off into her bedroom right after.

“You’re insane!” Keener shot back in a fit of rage, and he left the house shortly after to cool his head.

When he came back, he overheard his grandmother speaking on the phone with some relatives.

The straw that broke the camel’s back

“Benjamin is a liar, he’s ungrateful, he doesn’t help me,” She allegedly told their other family members. Keener was infuriated by his grandmother’s words.

“Everything I did in Canada was to help this woman,” he said. Nevertheless, his grandmother lived in a different reality from his. Apparently, whenever he went out to go to the gym, she believed that he was going someplace else because he looked “exactly the same.”

Keener said he lost 90 pounds, which refutes his grandmother’s claim. Nevertheless, the situation did not de-escalate. He also heard his grandmother say that she’ll ask another relative to come over to the apartment to “scare” and “knock sense” into Keener. It seemed that everything he did was a problem for his grandmother, down to the way he used their water jug at home.

Keener did not immediately barge in the door to confront the woman. Instead, he went to a coffee shop down the street. He called his mother, and he asked her to book a flight for him on Saturday morning. Eventually, he came back for the night and spoke to his grandmother about leaving for the US the next day. Keener also informed her that he knows what he said about her over the phone, and she “malfunctioned,” refusing to own up to anything she said.

“What’s crazy to me is that she’s a typical religious Filipino woman… In that same morning, she was telling me that ‘liars go to hell.’ You’re lying to my face right now,” he recalled, still worked up by the interaction. Although things were ending on a bad note for Keener and his grandma, he still tried to be civil and gave her a hug before leaving.

“Do you really love me?” she asked, as if to guilt Keener for leaving after the explosive fight from the day before. It’s better to walk away than to reason with a wall.

(featured images: Ben Keener)

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