Influencer Created Cast of Late Husband’s Hand for Kids to Hold (Exclusive)

After her husband was diagnosed with a terminal illness, one woman found a tangible way to preserve his memory for their whole family.

Last month, social media star Lisa Pontius announced that her husband, Matthew, died at age 43 on Aug. 19 from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a rare brain condition with a characteristically rapid progression. According to Mayo Clinic, most people with CJD die within a year.

The content creator shares three kids with her late husband; in a video posted on Tuesday, Aug. 26, Lisa showed her 664,000 TikTok followers one of the ways she was “desperately trying to preserve memories for my kids” before their father’s death.

The brief, five-second clip sees Matthew seemingly asleep in a hospital bed with oxygen tubes attached to his face. Despite his resting state, his hand was propped up in a bucket to create a mold.

“Me taking a hand cast of my husband so the kids can always hold daddy’s hand after he passes,” she explained in overlaying text. The video has since reached over 5.2 million TikTok views and garnered over 198,000 likes on the app.

“This project was a last-ditch effort to preserve a piece of him for my kids and for me to hold on to,” Lisa tells PEOPLE one week after sharing the now-viral footage. “Matt was my true soul mate and the best father in the world.”

Per a GoFundMe page set up to support Lisa and the three children she shares with Matthew, he was officially diagnosed with the fatal disease in mid-August. As Lisa recounted on TikTok, his symptoms only initially appeared at the beginning of June.

In her post sharing the tragic news of his death, Lisa wrote, “My heart is broken because half of it has belonged to this man since we’ve met. He was every bit of magic I had hoped for in my lifetime. The love we shared was simple, and easy, and full of so much hope for the future.”

She also expressed her gratitude that Matthew died “peacefully” by her side. “Matthew passed away while we snuggled in his hospice bed, while I recounted stories of our adventures together and told him just how profoundly grateful I was to have been loved by him and how loved he was by all of us,” she shared in her caption.

“The love we shared will never fade because it was bigger than we were. Rest in peace my love, and wait for me,” Lisa concluded.