A Montreal TikToker reconnected her grandmother with a long-lost friend — the former Princess of Bulgaria. Kaylee Patterson’s videos earn thousands of views on social media. She started posting about how her grandmother was a childhood friend of the former Princess of Bulgaria. Then the princess’s own grandkids saw it, and calls were made. “Such a surreal moment because I’m talking to this, like, mythological figure or the woman that my grandmother would tell me that I needed to be an example for growing. And here I am talking to her, and now she’s real,” Patterson said. Patterson’s grandmother, Dikrana Iranian, grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and remembers time spent with young Princess Maria-Louisa of Bulgaria, who, with her family, was living in exile in Egypt. “My mum had to leave for Cairo, and I was living in Alexandria, and she didn’t want me to miss school. So I guess the Queen, offered to keep me for 12 days, so I spent 12 days as royalty,” Iranian said. Over the decades, the friends lost touch, except for a quick visit at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport. “I got a phone call from her, and she says, ’Dikrana, I’m going to be in Montreal for one hour at the airport! Can you make it?’ I said, ‘Sure, I can make it,” she recounted. Iranian’s daughter, Christine Saad, said she remembers that day, too. “I knew we had royal [blood]. We had blue blood. I mean, but the connection to Bulgaria. No, I had no clue. But when she told me she was going to the airport to meet the Princess, and I remember asking her, is she going to be wearing her crown? I was so intrigued,” Saad said. Now the two old friends are catching up on the phone. “We spoke for 45 minutes two weeks ago,” Iranian said. There was a lot to talk about since that sleepover 80 years ago. “Seeing her have this joy and remembering her childhood and really living through that and feeling like I’m the one who put this in action, it’s really heartwarming,” Patterson said.
