A lady is becoming popular on TikTok after describing how she commemorates her husband’s first wife, who died 10 years ago at the age of 33.

Rachael Knaak has published various details about her life with her husband Atom Knaak on social media, such as how she bakes cupcakes every year to memorialize his late wife and how his late wife’s parents now act as “bonus in-laws” to Rachael.

“We met in December 2014 and married on September 26, 2015. It was a very short relationship, but we knew on our first date that we were going to marry, and it was simply natural,” Rachael tells PEOPLE about her love story with Atom.

Their encounter occurred one year after Atom’s first wife, Gretchen, died when he was only 29.

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When the two met, Atom revealed that he was a widowed single father with a 3-year-old son called Riley.

“When I came into the picture a year later, I came in with the understanding that she was part of their story,” Rachael explains, adding that Gretchen is now “part of our story.”

Rachael discovered early in the relationship that Atom stayed close to Gretchen’s family, a closeness she values.

“I really appreciated that he went to such lengths to make sure they could see their kid. “It demonstrated how honorable he was,” Rachael adds.

Rachael now refers to Gretchen’s parents as her “bonus in-laws,” citing the deep bond she has formed with them since marrying Atom and having three children of their own.

“I come from a very close and tight-knit family,” Rachael explains. “And I identified Gretchen, his late wife, as having a similar family structure. I think that made it easier for us to accept and love them.”

Rachael says Gretchen’s parents “have always been so welcoming and loving towards me.”

They even went to Rachael and Atom’s wedding and arrived “just days after” the births of their other children, Harper, 8, Myles, 6, and Sutton, 10 months.

“They are proud grandparents to all four of them,” Rachael says, adding that her and Atom’s three children “know no different — they have three sets of grandparents and are very lucky kids to be so well-loved.”

Rachael adds that as her connection with Atom has grown over the years, she has always made an effort to include Gretchen in her interactions with both her husband and his kid.

“Ensuring Riley never felt afraid to mention her name, asking questions about who she was, and fostering a love for her by being able to celebrate her life on her birthday were all things I just did from the very beginning,” Rachael recounts.

This year was the tenth time the trio, together with Rachael and Atom’s three children, celebrated Gretchen’s birthday without her. Footage of the incident has gone viral on TikTok, garnering hundreds of thousands of views and compliments from individuals inspired by Rachael’s dedication to remembering her husband’s late wife.

“We sang her ‘Happy Birthday’ and he blew out candles for her,” she recalls.

She opted to broadcast the experience on social media, she adds, because she recalls entering into a relationship with a widower and feeling like she was in unfamiliar territory.

“I was a 26-year-old lady entering into a completely unfamiliar situation with no idea what to anticipate. I understood that loving a widower would provide its own set of obstacles, and I would need to approach it with a perspective that was unlike any other relationship I’d ever had,” she adds. “Stories like ours were hard to find.”

TikTok videos of her children’s special bond with their “bonus grandparents” or of her family celebrating Gretchen’s birthday “show other young widows and widowers that there can be beauty and hope in the hard parts of their stories.”

“It’s a very different narrative than others, but at its core, it’s about family,” she says. “And she’s a part of mine.”