Woman's Husband Surprises Her with Replica of Late-Dad's Vintage T-Shirt (Exclusive)

Ronalynn tells PEOPLE her husband, Grayson, got the replica a couple of sizes bigger, so it would fit like it did when she was younger

Ronalynn Grace Whitworth; TikTok

A husband's special, sentimental gift to his wife has gone viral as a reminder that sometimes little things can mean so much more.

Ronalynn and Grayson each grew up in Decatur, Ala. Grayson lived with his parents and stayed in town with his mom as he got older. Ronalynn lived with her parents and little sister until a tragic accident took her father's life when she was just 6.

"Having a loss so young — not just me, but my mom was also young, only 29 or 30 — it definitely made us a lot closer as a family," she tells PEOPLE.

The spouses first met in high school. Grayson recalls, "We were on the bowling team together. We started dating my senior year and her junior year."

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Ronalynn Grace Whitworth

Grayson proposed in September 2023, with the couple tying the knot just before the year's end. From the beginning of their time together and into their marriage, Ronalynn knew there was something special about their connection.

"From day one of dating, I absolutely saw that, but still, every day he continues to inspire me and surprise me, and he just always shows up and shows out, and it's something I really appreciate about him and our relationship is how constant he is, and how understanding and loving he is," she shares.

"Growing up, I had undiagnosed ADHD on top of the trauma of my dad passing. I definitely struggled. Grayson was absolutely my rock, especially around high school. It was a rough time for me, and Grayson stepped in. I truly don't know where I would be without him. He stuck with me through the highs and lows with navigating trauma and getting my diagnosis, learning how to take care of myself."

Knowing so much about Ronalynn, Grayson knew that she had a t-shirt that was really special to her. It belonged to her dad and had been with her since his passing. He saw it a few times before Ronalynn told him what it meant to her and how afraid she was of it getting ruined somehow.

"I kept it in the back of my closet because I was afraid of it getting damaged. Then I was cleaning out my closet and I mentioned to him that he was going to try to wear it," she recalls.

Ronalynn Grace Whitworth/TikTok

On the day that she wore it, "Almost immediately, one of our dogs was super muddy and jumped on me and got mud on the shirt."

"I kind of freaked out, and Grayson was like, 'It's okay, look.' He went and put it in the washer, on the gentle setting. I really got upset over it just because I was telling him that's the only piece of my dad's clothing that I own. That's really all that I have, besides one of his old guitars," Ronalynn says.

"I was crying and I was telling him that I want to wear it, but I'm just afraid to because things happen. I didn't want anything to happen to it because it feels like the last physical piece of my dad that I have left."

For Grayson, seeing what the shirt really meant to her made him want to find her another.

"I always try to keep her with a good connection to the memory of her dad. I make sure she knows that I'm here for her with that. Seeing how sad she was just because it got mud on it and how important it was to her drew me to try to find it," he explains.

Ronalynn Grace Whitworth/TikTok

It wasn't easy, considering the Disney t-shirt hadn't been produced in approximately 20 years. Grayson kept at it and eventually found exactly what he was looking for.

"It was very exciting. It was like being able to reconnect her to that piece of her childhood, and she could wear it and at the same time, [the original shirt] is safe and won't get messed up."

When Grayson presented Ronalynn with the shirt, "I cried for about a half hour. I was thanking him and crying, and it was very emotional. Almost immediately after, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I have to show my mom.' I FaceTimed her, and she was crying, I was crying. It was a sweet moment."

Ronalynn wanted to tell all her friends. Instead, she made her now-viral TikTok about it. The video begins with her wearing the original shirt.

"My dad passed away when I was 6. This was one of his favorite sleep shirts. He bought it at Disney World in the early 2000's. I was telling my husband about how my dad used to let me borrow it to sleep in, and how it used to touch my knees because of how big it was on my 6-year-old self. My husband asked why I don't wear it anymore, and I told him I was afraid of it getting messed up," she wrote.

The next scene shows her wearing the new, larger shirt. She wrote, "Somehow, my husband found the exact same shirt online and bought it for me. When I tried it on, he said, 'I got it a size bigger than you normally wear so it will feel like it used to when you were little.'"

Ronalynn put her phone down and enjoyed the rest of the night with her husband, never picturing that by the next morning, they'd have gone viral.

"It was crazy. I didn't open TikTok until around one or two the next day, and that's when I saw it had started getting up there. So I got Grayson, and I showed him, and then we were kind of just watching every few hours or so. That first couple of days, we would kind of look back on it and just be, like, 'Oh my gosh. Disney commented! E.l.f. beauty commented!' It shocked both of us."

The video even reached another TikToker who wanted to try to find a copy of the shirt, which her own late father also had. They were able to connect her with an Etsy store to get it.

"I think there was only two or three available because Disney stopped making those shirts in the early 2000s. I was able to connect with her and send her the link for that so that she could get the same shirt. It's all just been such an incredible experience getting to share this with the world."

The experience has also been an emotional one as commenters tell Ronalynn that her father must have sent a wonderful man like her husband her way.

"It really does feel that my dad personally hand-picked him for me and sent him at just the right time that I needed him. It feels like that was my dad's way of taking a step back and saying, 'Here's someone who's going to love you and protect you.' " Ronalynn says. "It absolutely feels that way to me, and my whole family is all in agreement that my dad would have loved Grayson. They're very similar in a lot of ways."

Grayson's hopeful that this will show others how easy it can be to do something special for someone you love. "I think it'll help a lot of people who might be going through the same things. Even just to get an idea of, 'Maybe I could find something that one of their family members had.' There's a way to do it," he says.

Ronalynn is proud of her husband and hopes everyone has the luck of finding a partner who fits them just the same.

"I can truly say I have never been more deeply loved and felt more considered. I never even knew a love like mine and his could exist, and so. I know people say never settle all the time, but truly, for me, I'm eternally grateful that I didn't, because [of] Grayson. I never could have imagined I would have ever been loved this much."