'Beautiful, but heartbreaking:' Baby girl meets namesake great-grandmother through car window

PLEASANT PRAIRIE -- A beautiful, but heartbreaking moment was caught on camera -- a meeting that was nearly a century in the making.

"It was beautiful," said Ross Oberschlake, father of Emma.

Oberschlake spoke of the moment his daughter was introduced to her great-grandmother -- through a car window and face mask in the McDonald's parking lot in Pleasant Prairie.

"It was a beautiful thing to have Emma meet her great-grandmother, but at the same time, it was heartbreaking," said Oberschlake.

It was a family introduction amid the coronavirus.

"She was named after my grandmother, which is the one that you met in the video," said Maggie Oberschlake, mother of Emma.

Maggie and Ross Oberschlake of Waukesha welcomed a healthy baby girl named Emma Jane Oberschlake.

"I wanted to name her Emma, and her middle name, with significance, and I don't think it could be any more significant than naming her after my grandmother," said Maggie Oberschlake.

Emma's middle name, Jane, was a nod to her great-grandmother, a Polish woman named Janina, which translates to Jane in English.

"She grew up living with us," said Maggie Oberschlake. "She was kind of like a second mom to me."

When it came time to introduce the two, the family realized it wasn't going to be that simple.

"So we called my mom, and she was like, 'Okay, I'll leave in a hour,' and we decided to meet halfway," said Maggie Oberschlake.

They decided that to keep everyone safe, they would all stay in their vehicles.

"I was going to ask my mom to just back up the car, and I was going to hold her up, and my grandmother was going to stay in the car, and they were going to look at each other through the car windows," said Maggie Oberschlake.

But that plan underestimated the strong will of one determined great-grandma.

"But she got out of the car, she came up to the window, and I'll just never forget that moment of seeing her expression of seeing Emma through the window for the first time," said Maggie Oberschlake. "I will never take for granted being able to hug a family member, just to be in their presence again. I won't."

The family noted plans to introduce Emma to as many aging family members as possible, but the coronavirus has meant that there are some she'll never have the good fortune of meeting.