A woman whose grandparents are “frozen in time” on Google Street View has called it “forever my favourite place on the internet”. Chelsea Boyce, 31, from London, said the image of Ted Boyce and Beryl Boyce outside their Cardiff Road home in Creigiau was captured in 2011, the year her granddad died, and it “warms my heart every time I see it and it just brings back a lot of memories”.
The picture shows Ted opening the door for Beryl at their home in the village just outside Cardiff. Boyce posted a video on Instagram of her visiting the house, and said she received many sweet messages from people who said they also used Google Maps to see their late loved ones.
The model and photoshoot producer said her grandparents were born and raised in Wales and that she spent most childhood holidays visiting their home in Wales from London growing up.
Ted, who was a musical director for BBC Wales, died in 2011 followed by Beryl six years later.
Boyce said her granddad was “always such a gentleman” holding the door open for her grandma.
During the 1970s, Ted led the Ted Boyce Quartet on Wales' answer to Top Of The Pops - Disc A Dawn - which broadcast Welsh-language pop and folk songs for nearly seven years.
Boyce said she first stumbled on them on Google Maps when she was 16 years old in 2011, when she was “missing him”.
“I remember it feeling really special,”
She said the house holds so many memories anyway and is a really special place for her.
“The house holds so many memories anyway, it's a really special place for me.”
“It felt really sad to see them because I miss my grandpa a lot. Really happy to see they were both in the picture together.”
“I love that it was the both of them going into the house together. It felt nostalgic. And him holding the door for her as well, he was always such a gentleman.”
“It really exemplified who he was as a person and the memories I have of them.”
Boyce said seeing her grandparents still brings “mixed emotions, sadness and happiness” even after all these years.
She said it was “lovely” so many people messaged her saying they were touched by her video.
“It's really nice a lot of people have had the same experience as me, where they can go back and see someone who passed away and see them in a frozen moment at somewhere that might also be special to them,”
