Five-year-old Austyn Woolverton and her grandfather, Steve Guenther, recently attended a father-daughter dance in Papillion, Nebraska, after the pair warmed the hearts of millions on social media. On the day of the father-daughter dance, Kelsey Woolverton, Austyn’s mother, told Fox News Digital that Austyn woke up saying, “The dance is tonight! It’s the dance day!”

Woolverton said she did Austyn’s hair for the highly anticipated event since Austyn and her grandfather went viral on TikTok. At the time, Woolverton showed footage of the heartwarming moment when Austyn asked her grandfather to join her for the daddy-daughter Valentine’s Day event. The TikTok video gained more than two million views.

Since the original viral video, TikTok users asked for an update on the dance, which occurred in early February. In the original video, you can hear Austyn softly telling her grandfather, “There’s a Valentine’s dance. But we need our dad to go.” Austyn decided to ask her grandpa to the dance since her father, Michael Woolverton, died after a drug overdose when Austyn was 18 months old. Austyn’s mother said, “She really doesn’t have memories of him, but from the very beginning, we have talked about him.”

“It breaks my heart that Austyn will grow up without her dad,” Guenther told Fox News Digital. “I feel blessed that Austyn and I have this bond and I can be there for her when her dad can’t,” he added. Kelsey Woolverton said the memory of Austyn’s dad lives on. “He was a fuller-than-life person. Full of joy [and] loved people,” she said. “[He] was never serious, almost to a fault,” Woolverton said. After Austyn’s father died, mother and daughter moved from Oklahoma back to Nebraska. When Kelsey and Austyn moved back in with her parents, Woolverton says that’s when Austyn and her grandfather got closer.

@kdub1220I’m not crying….♬ Surrender – Natalie Taylor

Woolverton said as the dance drew near, she wanted her daughter to find normalcy in attending without being reminded that her father couldn’t be there. She shared, “In a special moment like this, I don’t want to take anything away from her little happiness.” Of her TikTok going viral, Woolverton said, “My intention in posting it was never to bring light to daddy-daughter dances. I think inclusivity is so hard because how far do you go without taking it away from people who do have dads?”

Woolverton said that with Austyn’s father gone, the dance was an opportunity for Austyn to find other ways to feel included. “There is no reason [kids] need to miss out on things like this just because it’s called a ‘daddy-daughter dance,’” Woolverton commented. “It’s a brave thing to do… It’s not always the easiest,” she added.

As for the event, Woolverton said that Austyn and her grandpa were full of smiles. Austyn’s mother says the two “had a great time.” Losing a husband and father at a young age can’t be easy. Luckily, Kelsey and Austyn had Austyn’s grandfather, who could step in and serve as a father figure for Austyn. Though Austyn may not have many memories of her father, she can hold on to the memories she made with her grandfather at the Valentine’s Day daddy-daughter dance.