He had already been there.
That distinction would become enormously important when Norma’s health deteriorated.
Then Everything Changed
Norma had leukemia.
As she grew older, her health became increasingly fragile. Reports at the time said she also suffered a serious bout of pneumonia and experienced breathing problems that required hospitalization.
What had once been a friendship centered on pizza nights, conversations and champagne gradually entered a much more difficult stage.
Norma spent an extended period in the hospital.
Eventually, the question became whether she could return home.
Doctors and medical staff determined that she could no longer safely live alone.
If Norma was going to leave the hospital and return to the apartment building that had been her home for decades, she needed around-the-clock care.
For an elderly person without sufficient financial resources, that requirement created an enormous problem.
Twenty-four-hour professional care is expensive.
Norma did not have close family living nearby who could simply step in and provide everything she needed.
Chris saw the situation unfolding.
And he decided to help.
Chris Tried Raising Money First
His first solution was fundraising.
Chris created an online crowdfunding campaign to help pay for Norma’s caregivers.
The campaign attracted considerable attention as people learned about their unusual friendship.
TIME reported that the fundraising effort brought in roughly $50,000 for Norma’s care.
It was a remarkable response.
Strangers who had never met Norma were willing to contribute because they were moved by the friendship between the two neighbors.
But there was a difficult reality behind the impressive fundraising total.
Around-the-clock care could consume money rapidly.
Even tens of thousands of dollars might not provide a permanent solution.
Chris began to realize that the available funds would eventually run out.
Then what?
Norma still needed care.
She still wanted to remain close to the place she considered home.
And moving into an institutional facility was an option Chris desperately hoped she would not have to face.
So he considered another possibility.
Instead of simply paying someone else to stay with Norma, what if she came to live with him?
“Move In With Me”
Chris invited Norma to move into his apartment.
Not just Norma.
Her beloved cat, Hermes, came too.
It was a remarkable offer, but from Chris’s perspective, it apparently felt surprisingly natural.
He was already spending significant amounts of time with her.
She was already like a grandmother to him.
His apartment was nearby.
And because he often worked from home, he could be present much of the time while professional caregivers and medical staff continued providing necessary assistance.
Norma accepted.
The two neighbors officially became roommates.
For many people, inviting another person into their home is a major adjustment under ordinary circumstances.
This situation was anything but ordinary.
Chris was not simply gaining a roommate.
He was opening his home to an 89-year-old friend with serious health problems who needed significant care.
That meant responsibility.
It meant changes to his daily routine.
It meant confronting the reality that someone he loved might not have much time left.
But it also meant Norma could remain in a familiar environment with someone she trusted.
A Home Instead of Isolation
KTVU reported that Norma had lived in her apartment building for decades and did not want to leave.
The possibility of spending the final chapter of her life somewhere unfamiliar was difficult.
Chris understood that.
By inviting Norma into his apartment, he could not change her diagnosis.
He could not guarantee how much time she had.
He could not remove every difficult part of aging or serious illness.
But he could change one thing.
She did not have to face it alone.
Norma now had her own space in his apartment.
Her cat was there.
Caregivers could continue visiting.
Hospice professionals could check on her.
And Chris was nearby.
It was not a cure.
It was companionship.
Sometimes that is one of the most meaningful things another person can offer.
Life as Unlikely Roommates
The story might sound unbearably sad when reduced to its medical details.
Yet reports about Chris and Norma’s time together describe something much warmer.
They continued talking.
They watched television.
They ate together.
They enjoyed champagne.
Norma joked about Chris’s cooking.
According to accounts that quoted their interview with TODAY, Norma teased that if Chris’s acting career did not work out, he might have a future as a chef.
That humor says something important about their relationship.
Norma was not simply a patient.
Chris was not simply a caregiver.
They were friends.
Their relationship still contained jokes, routines and ordinary pleasures.
Serious illness had changed the circumstances of their friendship, but it had not erased the friendship itself.
When asked about Norma, Chris repeatedly emphasized how much she had given him.
The public story naturally focused on his generosity.
After all, he was the young man who opened his home to his elderly neighbor.
But Chris did not describe the relationship as one-sided.
He believed Norma had changed him.
She had taught him patience.
She had helped him become more compassionate.
She had shown him what he considered truly important.
That is what made their relationship different from a simple story about charity.
Chris was caring for Norma.
But Norma had also enriched Chris’s life.
The Grandmother He Chose
The word “family” usually brings biology to mind.
Parents.
Children.
Brothers.
Sisters.
Grandparents.
But life frequently creates relationships that do not fit neatly onto a family tree.
A close friend can become like a sibling.
A mentor can become a parental figure.
A neighbor can become a grandmother.
For Chris and Norma, that was exactly what happened.
Norma did not need to share Chris’s DNA to matter deeply to him.
Chris did not need to be Norma’s biological grandson to feel responsible for her wellbeing.
They chose each other.
And when circumstances became difficult, that choice became more meaningful.
It is easy to call someone family during happy moments.
The word takes on a different meaning when caring for that person requires sacrifice.
Chris had to think about caregivers, medical visits, living arrangements and the practical realities of serious illness.
Yet he continued to describe Norma as his adopted grandmother.
And Norma continued to treat him like family.
The Story Spreads
As Chris shared their life online, people began paying attention.
News organizations picked up the story in January 2017.
Suddenly, a friendship that had developed quietly inside a West Hollywood apartment building was being discussed around the world.
People were fascinated by the contrast.
Thirty-one and eighty-nine.
Actor and retiree.
Young man and elderly woman.
Neighbors turned best friends.
Best friends turned family.
But beneath all those contrasts was something remarkably simple.
One person needed someone.
Another person chose to stay.
The story resonated partly because loneliness among older adults is a very real issue.
Age can gradually shrink a person’s social world.
Friends may move away or pass away.
Mobility problems can make socializing harder.
Illness can lead to isolation.
Family members may live hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Norma’s circumstances were personal, but the broader issue was not unique to her.
What made her situation unusual was the relationship she had built with the man across the hall.
Friendship Across Generations
There is something especially compelling about friendships between generations.
People often socialize primarily with others around their own age.
Schools group children by age.
Young adults tend to socialize with young adults.
Parents often meet other parents.
Retirees may increasingly spend time with people in the same stage of life.
Those patterns are understandable, but they can also create invisible walls between generations.
Chris and Norma crossed that wall.
Their age difference became less important than their compatibility.
They found things to talk about.
They developed routines.
They made each other laugh.
They cared about what happened to one another.
That friendship gave Norma companionship.
But Chris repeatedly made clear that he benefited as well.
He was learning from someone who had experienced decades of life before he was even born.
Their relationship illustrates something easy to forget: friendship does not require two people to have identical backgrounds.
Sometimes differences make a friendship richer.
When Caring Becomes Love
There is a practical side to caregiving that inspirational stories can sometimes overlook.
Helping someone with serious health problems is demanding.
It requires time.
It can require money.
It can disrupt routines.
It can be emotionally exhausting.
And when the person is approaching the end of life, there is the additional burden of knowing that the relationship may soon end.
Chris was not portrayed as replacing professional medical care.
Reports noted that Norma continued receiving help from caregivers and hospice professionals.
What Chris provided was something medicine cannot prescribe.
Presence.
He was there.
He made sure Norma remained connected to a familiar life.
He helped create an environment where she was surrounded by things and people she knew.
And perhaps most importantly, he treated her as Norma rather than simply as an elderly cancer patient.
Norma Continued to Defy Expectations
At one point, medical professionals reportedly feared Norma might not survive beyond the holiday season.
Yet she continued.
Chris celebrated every additional stretch of time with her.
He shared updates with people who had followed their story and supported Norma’s care.
The public began cheering for a woman most had never met.
But Chris understood that the story would eventually have an ending.
He had not invited Norma into his home because he believed he could prevent death.
He invited her because whatever time remained mattered.
Days mattered.
Meals mattered.
Conversations mattered.
Sitting together mattered.
Another pizza night mattered.
Another glass of champagne mattered.
Another laugh mattered.
When time becomes limited, ordinary moments can suddenly become extraordinary.
Her Final Weeks
Norma remained with Chris during the final period of her life.
Then, in February 2017, she died at the age of 89.
ABC7 reported her death and recalled the friendship that had begun years earlier when Chris moved into the apartment building and the two started talking.
By then, their story had reached people far beyond West Hollywood.
Chris shared the news publicly.
His message focused not only on grief but also on what Norma had taught him.
He wrote about love.
He wrote about accepting people despite their differences.
And he described Norma as someone whose spirit would continue to affect the people who had learned about her.
Other reports said Norma died from complications associated with leukemia.
She had spent her final weeks not in isolation, but in a home with someone she considered family.
The young neighbor across the hall had become the grandson she never had.
What Chris Gave Norma
It would be easy to describe Chris’s gift in material terms.
He gave her a room.
He helped raise money.
He provided meals.
He helped coordinate care.
He opened his apartment to her and her cat.
All of those things mattered.
But his greatest gift may have been simpler.
He made sure she knew she mattered to someone.
At a stage of life when independence was disappearing and illness was taking control of more of her daily existence, Chris gave Norma something deeply human: belonging.
She was not merely being managed.
She was loved.
She had someone to talk to.
Someone who knew her personality.
Someone who understood her jokes.
Someone who knew she liked champagne.
Someone who knew she loved her cat.
Someone who had memories with her that existed long before hospitals and caregivers became part of their routine.
What Norma Gave Chris
But again, this was never only about what Chris gave Norma.
He repeatedly said she changed him.
That may be the most important part of the story.
Acts of kindness are often described as though one person gives and the other receives.
Real relationships are usually more complicated.
Chris provided practical support when Norma needed it most.
Norma provided something that cannot be measured in dollars.
Perspective.
Friendship.
Affection.
Wisdom.
A relationship that helped him understand what he valued.
He became her adopted grandson.
She became his adopted grandmother.
Neither title came from a legal document.
Neither came from biology.
They came from years of showing up for each other.
The Neighbor We Usually Walk Past
Perhaps that is why their story resonated with so many people.
Most of us have neighbors.
We pass them in hallways.
We see them in elevators.
We wave from driveways.
We hear doors opening and closing on the other side of a wall.
Yet many people know surprisingly little about those living only a few feet away.
Chris could easily have remained the young man across the hall.
Norma could easily have remained the elderly woman next door.
Instead, somebody said hello.
Then somebody knocked on a door.
Someone offered a glass of champagne.
They talked.
One conversation became another.
Weeks became months.
Months became years.
A neighbor became a friend.
A friend became family.
And when life became difficult, that relationship became a source of care and dignity.
Family Is Sometimes Something We Build
Chris and Norma’s story does not suggest that every neighbor must become a caregiver.
Nor should caring for someone with serious medical needs be romanticized. Professional medical support, financial resources and appropriate caregiving services can be essential.
The lesson is simpler.
Human connection can begin in remarkably ordinary places.
You do not always know which relationship will eventually become important.
