08/08/2025
When a Greek grandmother started passing food over her garden fence to two grief-stricken brothers, her kindness meant everything as they came to terms with their mother's death.
Luke and Daniel Mancuso started posting videos of the delicious meals their neighbour, a Greek 'yiayia' (grandmother) called Nina, passed to them.
Their account became a surprise internet hit - but what people didn't know, was that the boys' mother had been killed as a result of domestic violence at the hands of their father.
Growing up, family was everything to the boys' mother - and their father was a good provider. However, he also had a darker side.
"I think he felt like maybe he had a free pass to act the way he wanted to and sort of bring home his anger with him if he was having a bad day," says Luke.
As the boys got older, he became physically abusive towards their mother.
"It was hard and challenging because you'd also think at times it was normal," says Daniel. "You would feel a bit ashamed to kind of talk about it to friends or family."
After more than 20 years together, their mother finally left the family home, moving into her mother's old house. The boys decided to stay living with their father - partly because school was closer, but mostly to keep an eye on him.
Three years after the split, they came back one night to find their father had vanished – and they couldn’t reach their mother.
The police broke the news that their mother had died. Instantly, the boys suspected their father of killing her.
"[He had] given her a life of living hell the whole time… we just connected the dots straight away," says Daniel.
For two years, the boys struggled with shock, sleeplessness and grief. Eventually, CCTV evidence emerged showing their father had lied about his alibi. He was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment.
That was when the boys decided to move to the last place their mother had lived - next door to Nina. Nina instantly began passing food across the garden fence to them. They remember the first meal well - it was chicken and rice covered in foil, with steam still rising from it.
For Nina, food was a way of showing her love for them and their mother.
"They're good boys with a good mother, and they need a bit of weight on them, don't they?" Nina says.
The boys started to do things for Nina too - they cut her lawn, and shopped for her. Soon, Daniel's videos of their garden fence exchanges attracted tens of thousands of followers.
At first, people saw the account as a simple, heart-warming story. But once the boys explained what was behind it, it sparked conversations about domestic violence across Australia.
Luke says, "for us it just showed that there is power in kindness and we feel like kindness and community is a strong antidote to violence."
Daniel and Luke now raise money for charities which support women and families suffering abuse.
And - they've also persuaded yiayia Nina to write a cookbook.
🎧 Hear more on Outlook: https://bbc.in/4ooGEnt
