After losing his mom close to the wedding, he had no one to dance with. So he turned to the unlikeliest person — his fiancée’s mother

Sometimes, a person's found family might help them deal with a loss a little better. A man who was about to get married to his long-time girlfriend can attest to that. The man, William Smith, had lost his mom soon after he started dating his fiancée, Anna Meredith, per PEOPLE. So he asked Anna's mom, Kate, to do the mother-son dance with him at their wedding. The sweet moment was captured by Anna and shared on her TikTok page, where she goes by @annakathryn1207. The clip received over 1.3 million views.

"Late night finds, but it is my fiancé asking my mom to dance the mother-son dance with him at our wedding," the text overlay of the video read. The entire family was sitting around the table as Smith asked Anna's mom to dance with him on their wedding day. Every person on the table, including Kate, had the biggest smile on their face after the man asked the question. Smith seemed excited at the response as the video ended. The caption read, "I love their relationship so much and I will probably sob. I'm just so grateful I get to share my family with him forever now." The couple told PEOPLE that they met each other back in 2017 while they were both working at a grocery store.

The couple also lived with Anna's family during COVID and Smith built a special bond with all of them. "We spent almost all of Covid living in a bigger house and I always looked at Kate as another mom," Smith pointed out. So he decided to ask his mother-in-law about the dance. "He had wanted to ask her, like, a couple times before that and was like, oh, like, it's not the right time. So, he was like, 'Should I do it today? No, I'm not gonna do it today,'" Anna remembered. "I've been thinking about it since we were engaged and everything like that and then my mom passed away right as I started dating Anna." Smith believed that he was honoring his mother's memory with the gesture, too.

On the other hand, Kate was also very moved by the request. "Honestly, I was very touched. I never got a chance to meet Will's mom... but over the past few months, doing wedding things and getting to meet more of Will's family and hearing stories about his mom, it actually really meant a lot to me, because he's such a great, great kid." It was a unique opportunity for Kate as well as she has five daughters and had never danced with a son. The man had become an integral part of the family over the years and was also loved by Anna's sisters. People appreciated the beautiful moment between Kate and Smith in the comments section of the TikTok video.

@quiche_of_the_day wrote, "Everyone gently looking back and forth between them and taking the moment in for a second is so lovely." @jaclyndeanda3 commented, "My mom and fiancé are also doing this since his mom passed away and then at the end he is going to dance with his daughter since it was just the three. I’m curious to what song he and your mom are thinking about dancing to." @kayoraclaire remarked, "I'm praying I can have a relationship like this with my future partner's family."

You can follow Anna Meredith (@annakathryn1207) on TikTok for more lifestyle content.