As previously reported, Jimmy Fallon recently lost his mother.
The host took a week off from filming The Tonight Show to mourn his loved one and then returned on Monday night and briefly addressed the sad situation from behind his desk.
At the top of the hour, Fallon said he was by his mother"s side when she passed away…
… and then he shared a memory that combined his childhood with his mother"s final moments.
“When we were little, my mom would walk us to the store, and we would hold hands. And she would squeeze my hand three times, and say ‘I love you,‘” a teary-eyed Fallon told the audience.
“Last week, I was in the hospital and I grabbed her hand and squeezed ‘I love you.’ I just knew we were in trouble.”
How does this story relate to musical guest Taylor Swift?
Swift performed the track “New Years Day” on the program, which is a ballad about never leaving a loved one’s side.
And it turns out that a lyric on the single bears a striking similarity to the memory Fallon revealed earlier in the evening.
“You squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi,” Swift sings in one verse. “I can tell that it’s gonna be a long road.”
When Taylor sang these words, Fallon was visibly moved to years off-camera, sources have confirmed.
And for an understandable reason, right?
According to writer/producer Mike DiCenzo, Swift wasn"t even booked for the show until the last moment.
And no one had any idea she would sing something that happened to be so personal to the host.
"I could see Jimmy silhouetted at his desk dabbing his eyes with a tissue," DiCenzo tweeted about the moment Swift hit that line, adding:
"We all lost it. It was a beautiful coincidence in a beautiful performance."
After she completed her performance, Swift and Fallon embraced.
You can hear the latter thanking the former in the video below.
"That hug between Jimmy and Taylor after the song was 100% real emotion. Whatever you think of Taylor, she did something beautiful for Jimmy and our show today, and we"re forever grateful," DiCenzo also said.
Pretty cool, huh?
Watch the full Taylor Swift performance now:
