SJ Peppers tells PEOPLE how an affordable rental led to an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Kay, an 86-year-old woman whose influence still shapes her life today
Ashley Vega
Fri, June 19, 2026 at 9:54 AM PDT
5 min read
Credit: SJ Peppers
NEED TO KNOW
- When SJ rented a $600 guest cottage at 22, she never expected her landlady would become one of the most important people in her life
- The pair bonded over fashion, relationships and long conversations, forming a friendship that lasted until Mrs. Kay’s death
- Years later, SJ says the lessons she learned from her beloved friend continue to shape who she is today
When SJ was 22 years old, she thought she had found an affordable place to live. Instead, she found the woman who would change the course of her life.
Recently, SJ, now 29, shared memories of her late landlady, Mrs. Kay, in a TikTok that struck a chord with viewers. In the video, she described the glamorous “86 year old” woman as her best friend, mentor and one of the most unforgettable people she has ever known.
Long before Mrs. Kay became a social media sensation, she was simply the woman renting out a guest cottage behind her home. SJ had just moved in when the two met face-to-face for the first time.
Go deeper with Yahoo Scout
- What inspired Mrs. Kay’s radical sense of self-love?
- What became of Mrs. Kay’s treasured antiques and jewelry?
- How did Mrs. Kay’s past marriages influence her life?
“Mrs. Kay had a brilliant golden aura,” SJ tells PEOPLE. “I could feel the warmth of her eyes and smile standing there in the driveway from hundreds of feet away.”
The connection was immediate. Looking back, SJ says it felt as though they were supposed to meet.
“As we both stood there in our matching outfits, immediately comfortable and familiar in one another’s presence, I knew immediately the Creator had something incredibly cheeky up his sleeve,” she says.
At first glance, the pair didn’t seem like obvious friends. More than six decades separated them in age, and Mrs. Kay had already lived several lifetimes’ worth of stories by the time SJ arrived. Though SJ placed her landlady’s age at around 86, she admits that the woman actually wouldn’t divulge just how old she really was.
“She would NEVER tell me how old she was. I have no real idea of how old she was at the time of her passing or when I was living with her,” SJ admits.
According to SJ, Mrs. Kay had been married three times and possessed what she jokingly calls “insane lore.” But it wasn’t the stories themselves that drew her in — it was the woman telling them.
Credit: SJ Peppers
Their friendship deepened after a hurricane knocked out power to SJ’s cottage, forcing her to spend several weeks in the main house. What began as a temporary arrangement quickly turned into daily conversations, shared meals and a friendship that neither woman expected.
“We both loved the same things: fashion, coffee, food and men. In that order,” SJ says.
More in U.S.
Oh, now President Trump realizes birthright citizenship makes us better | Opinion
USA TODAY Sports
1.1K
Watch F1 Belgian GP on Apple TV July 19Apple TV+Ad
Before Air Force One, US presidents traveled aboard a luxury train car. See inside the ‘White House on wheels.’
Business Insider
Their age difference often disappeared during those conversations. SJ was captivated by Mrs. Kay’s past, while Mrs. Kay seemed equally fascinated by the life unfolding in front of her.
“We took turns living through each other,” SJ says. “There was an equal balance of listening and talking between us. We were both equally curious and fascinated with one another.”
The version of Mrs. Kay that appears in SJ’s TikTok is larger than life. There are stories about priceless antiques, designer handbags, furs and enough jewelry to fill a museum.
SJ still laughs when she remembers helping search for a missing sapphire ring worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. After turning the house upside down, they eventually discovered it wrapped inside a sock in a kitchen drawer.
Credit: SJ Peppers
The house itself felt almost mythical.
“I used to call her house the pirate ship because there was just treasure everywhere,” SJ recalled in her TikTok.
Yet for all the stories about luxury and glamour, SJ says the most remarkable thing about Mrs. Kay wasn’t what she owned; it was how she viewed herself.
“What made Mrs. Kay so powerful was not her fashion sense or the men in her life,” SJ says. “It was her radical sense of self-love and respect.”
She remembers a woman who demanded the best from life because she genuinely believed she deserved it. Even the smallest details reflected that philosophy.
“She knew what she was worth, and she curated every single detail of her life and environment to reflect that high level of self-love and respect,” SJ says.
Credit: SJ Peppers
Mrs. Kay’s confidence left a lasting impression, but so did her complexity. Behind the glamour, SJ saw someone navigating the realities of aging, loss and uncertainty.
“Mrs. Kay was a very complicated woman,” she says. “As confident as she was, I think old age and health issues worried her.”
Those contradictions only made her more memorable. Years after her death, SJ still struggles to explain exactly what Mrs. Kay meant to her.
“It’s hard to verbalize what Mrs. Kay was to me because she was everything,” she says.
When people ask what she learned from her friend, SJ doesn’t point to one conversation or a single piece of advice. Instead, she thinks about the years they spent together and the example Mrs. Kay set every day.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“There isn’t one specific thing I can pin down,” SJ says. “It was everything. It was her entire presence in my life.”
Today, the woman she met through a rental agreement remains one of the defining figures of her life. The friendship may have begun with a lease, but SJ says its impact stretches far beyond the years they spent together. Mrs. Kay died in 2023, giving SJ about four years with her landlady.
“When I lost Mrs. Kay, it was like breaking a fine beaded necklace on a carpet,” she says. “Something precious had been lost, but pieces of her were scattered all around me, waiting to be discovered.”
Read the original article on People
