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WEKU
WEKU
Emily Olson

Heaven has a bathrobe-clad receptionist named Denise. She's helping TikTok grieve

TikTok creator Taryn Delanie Smith plays Denise, a character who's helping the internet cope with grief and abstract questions about the afterlife. (TikTok @taryntino21/Screenshot by NPR)

If you ask anyone on TikTok what happens when you die, there's a decent chance they'll put it this way: You appear in a waiting room. You're wearing a bathrobe. And you're greeted not by St. Peter or Mother Mary, but by a gum-snapping, keyboard-clacking New Yorker named Denise.

As heaven's receptionist, Denise will hand you a welcome packet and ask what you want your ghost outfit to be. She'll fill you in on heaven's amenities (there's a free margarita bar), and she'll likely leave you with a little bit of gossip, lowering her voice to gripe about Paul Revere's latest email (all caps, subject line: URGENT) or that time in the nail salon when Jackie Kennedy met Marilyn Monroe ("like two cats on a hot tin roof").

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