MIAMI – Diana Gil couldn't wait to tell her 85-year-old mother the news of Fidel Castro's death.
Gil wasn't sure how Flora Suarez, who has Alzheimer's disease, would react, or if she'd understand.
She turned on her camera, and told her mom the news that Castro had died at age 90.
Suarez began to cry.
"In her capacity, just the death of Fidel meant Cuba is free at last," Gil said.
The video of her mother's reaction has gone viral with millions of views online.
"I think the reaction it's gotten is because so many people can see their parents, their grandparents in our family," Gil said.
The Suarez family lived in a beachside fishing village in Pinar Del Rio. As counter-revolutionaries, they grew fearful as Castro gained control of the country, and they fled Cuba in 1965.
"We all got instructions on how we were going to march to where the boats were," Pablo Suarez's, Gil's brother, said.
The family, along with more than 90 other people, boarded two boats at night,heading for Key West.
Gil was 5 and her brother Pablo Suarez was 8.
The group was rescued by the crew aboard a West German freighter after a day-and-a-half at sea.
They even made the front page of the Miami Herald.
After 63 years of marriage, Flora Suarez and Pablo Antonio Suarez are still together.
The couple's children say they're glad this personal moment touched so many people.
"At that moment, Cuba was free and she got to live it," Gil said.