Ever feel like you're Cinderella waiting for a prince to come find you with your lost slipper? Well, one tourist experienced something akin to the classic fairy tale after she lost her slipper in Lebanon.
The incident was recounted in a viral video shared on June 17 by Jess Tawil, a paraplegic TikTok user. The clip has received 1.4 million views.
A message overlaid on the clip reads: "POV [point of view]: You live a real life Cinderella story in Lebanon." Speaking from Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, Tawil said: "You guys wouldn't believe what happened to me yesterday."
Paraplegia is a form of paralysis affecting the legs and lower body. It is typically caused by injuries to the nervous system, especially the spinal cord.
The most-recent estimate of the annual incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) is around 54 cases per 1 million people in the U.S., according to data compiled by the National Spinal Cord Statistical Center, published in 2023. This amounts to about 18,000 new tSCI cases every year. The 2022 U.S. population was estimated to be about 334 million people.
TikTok user Tawil was sightseeing in Baalbek, a city located northeast of Beirut, a couple of hours from her home, when the incident took place.
Tawil said: "I'm paralyzed from the waist down, so I cannot feel my legs, I can't feel my feet and, most importantly, I cannot feel if my shoes are on. So, while I was there, I lost my slipper."
She added that, because the place she was exploring was "not the most wheelchair-accessible area, I had to be carried everywhere."
Tawil was "so certain" that her slipper may have fallen off somewhere while she was being carried around Baalbek.
She got home later, and her mom suggested doing a callout on her Instagram story to "see if somebody could find it for you."
Tawil said: "So I did and not even two minutes later, I get a DM [direct message]." The man who found her shoe is TikTok user Dr. Hamza Mustapha, according to a later comment by Tawil.
She said: "This guy goes, 'You're in my hometown, this is where I live. Tell me where you were exactly, and I will go right now [to find the slipper]."
Tawil sent the man a video showing "a small snippet" of where she was earlier that day. From that short clip, the doctor was able to decipher "exactly" where she was before and he said, "I'm on my way [there]."
Moments later, Tawil received a video call from the man who had the "slipper in his hand." The footage of the cat showed the item displayed on a cell-phone screen as a message across the clip read: "No way, he found it for me! Social media is so amazing!"
Tawil said: "There isn't a single soul on this planet that could tell me I am not Cinderella. So this week, I'm gonna go pick up my slipper..."
Several TikTok users were delighted by the latest "real life Cinderella" story, with user @vicoxb writing: "Girl that's your husband go get him."
User @reneerodriguez0220 posted: "Omg [oh my god]!!! CINDERELLA!!!!!!!! He could be your Prince Charming..."
Zayy Breziie agreed, writing: "Found your Prince Charming."
ToxicBridget commented: "The way he dropped whatever he was doing to go find your shoe immediately.. I love it."
User coribogle posted: "I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. People going out of their way to help someone they don't know makes me feel so connected to others."
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok and email. This video has not been independently verified.
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Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Soo Kim is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. She covers various lifestyle stories, specializing in travel and health.
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