Old Lady and the Squirrel

It all started when Ricky Syers, a talented street performer, met Doris Diether, a housing rights activist who has since lost her voice. According to the New York Daily News, the two became instant friends.

It was while his marionettes were performing in New York City’s Washington Square Park on July 30, 2014, that Diether, who temporarily lost her voice the year before due to an injury, first approached him. “One day she comes up to me and whispers, ‘I have something for you,’” he recalled. Opening a scrap book she revealed old newspaper clippings and articles she had written on marionettes back in 1974. Articles more recently added to her collection were ones she had seen on Syers’ work, which she cut out and saved for him.

The gesture floored Ricky. “This marionette thing has bonded us,” he said of their common interest, which inspired him to create the marionette resembling her “in honor of her.” The charming little puppet featuring Diether’s short, white hair and rosy cheeks comes complete with a handbag, cane, and floral blouse and skirt.

A few months later, in an amusing example of a typical PsBattle, a Reddit user challenged fellow Redditors to create Photoshopped variations of the same image of Doris.