NEED TO KNOW
Anthony Sanders wrote and posted a song to support his wife during a difficult job search after their move to Chicago
The surprise TikTok quickly went viral, resonating with both legal professionals and couples online
The moment sparked new opportunities, reflection on relationships, and renewed confidence in her career
After moving from San Antonio, Texas, to Chicago, Illinois to settle down with her husband, Nicolette Van Dielen set out to continue building her legal career.
Van Dielen, 43, had spent years working as a staff attorney for Pima County in Tucson, Arizona, gaining experience across multiple areas of law. She later worked in appeals for the city of San Antonio, where she and her husband, Anthony Sanders, lived for six years.
Still, Sanders, 33, says that despite his wife’s experience and strong references, breaking into a new legal market felt daunting. Chicago, he explains, is a big city, and at one point the uncertainty became overwhelming.
Anthony Sanders
Anthony Sanders with his wife Nicolette Van Dielen
One night, Van Dielen worried that everything she had worked toward might never quite come together. Wanting to help in any way he could, Sanders — a pianist in a band — turned to social media. He posted on Instagram Stories asking whether anyone had connections in Chicago’s legal world.
That’s when a friend, Madison Vine, suggested a different idea: turning the moment into a song.
“It came together incredibly quickly,” Sanders tells PEOPLE exclusively. “My synthesizer was already in my office while I was tracking my album, so I turned it on. There’s a bass sound I love, and once I started playing rhythms with my left hand, the structure revealed itself. It felt utterly casual.”
With his friend’s encouragement, Sanders later posted a video of himself performing the song on TikTok — without telling Van Dielen first.
“She didn’t know I was posting it,” he says. “I showed her after the fact, which was kind of a risk. She could’ve been embarrassed. Thankfully, she thought it was a really nice gesture.”
Since posting, the video has gone viral, racking up more than 1.4 million views and over 6,000 comments.
Sanders says the response initially left him confused.
“I didn’t understand what it was about this video that resonated so much,” he says. “Reading the comments helped me understand.”
Many of the messages, he says, focused not only on Van Dielen’s job search, but on their relationship. “It seems like it reached both LawTok and relationship TikTok,” he says. “People said unbelievably kind things about me and about us.”
Anthony Sanders
Anthony Sanders with his wife Nicolette Van Dielen
While he says the attention has been heartwarming, it has also prompted reflection. Looking back, Sanders says helping Nicolette felt like a natural instinct. Seeing the response made him realize that a lot of people don’t feel that kind of support in their relationships — or they’re longing for it.
“That part made me sad,” he says.
The attention has also brought tangible results. Sanders says the past week has been filled with interviews, emails and new connections and that Van Dielen is feeling more confident about her standing in the legal field. She has since had several interviews — some sparked by the video, others based entirely on her experience.
“People want to feel seen by the person they love,” he says. “They want to be spoken about positively in rooms they’re not in. I hope this encourages people to love loudly.”
Read the original article on People