Ashley Williams on Hallmark Channel’s Falling Together Movie Easter Eggs (Exclusive)

Eagle-eyed Hallmark fans likely felt a little lump in their throats watching the network’s latest movie, Falling Together, which premiered on World Alzheimer’s Day on Saturday, Sept. 21.

Star and executive producer Ashley Williams honored her mother, Linda, who died in 2016 after struggling with the disease for more than a decade, with the film, including countless winks to her personality, as well as the naming of the character who worked for Alzheimer’s Association Linda Payne. 

But one scene featured Easter eggs celebrating several other Hallmark favorites’ parents. 

In the scene, Williams’ character, Natalie, was looking at photos in Linda’s office, and the camera panned slowly past a photo of Williams’ mom — as well as images of Nikki DeLoach‘s father, David DeLoach, who died three years ago from a rare and aggressive form of dementia called Pick’s Disease, and Andrew Walker‘s mother, Joyce Francis Crossley Walker, who died last year after a long journey with Alzheimer’s.

“It was really important to us to put these little treasures in, and it was so cool we had this opportunity,” Williams tells PEOPLE. “I knew that we would need photos on the wall, because that’s what the Alzheimer’s Association does, and so I texted Nikki and Andrew and said, ‘Any chance you can send me some pictures? I want to include pictures of your family, of your dad and of your mom on the wall of the Alzheimer’s office location.'”

Not surprisingly, her longtime pals were quick to respond.

“They said, “‘Oh, that’d be amazing,’ and they started sending me pictures,” Williams recalls. “It’s something that not everybody’s going to notice, but it just made the scene all the more meaningful for me.”

She added, “This movie is so close to my heart. It just feels like it’s this little pocket of my heart. It means so much to me.”

While Williams next stars in Jingle Bell Run, a Christmas movie alongside Walker, she and DeLoach are working closely together on the upcoming fundraiser, Dance Party to End ALZ, which will take place in Los Angeles on Oct. 27. (Click here for tickets and more information.) The party helps to fund the Alzheimer’s Association’s Research Grant Program.

“The money just goes directly to scientists who are working on various studies,” Williams notes. “Nikki and I get to sit down every year and decide where the money goes. They talk us through different studies that they want to do, and then we choose which ones to help and how much money to give them. Getting to work with the Alzheimer’s Research Grant Program and seeing where the money goes makes me feel like every dollar really counts, which it does always, but you get to see it.”

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Falling Together, also starring Paul Campbell, airs again on Hallmark Channel on Sunday, Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. ET/PT. Jingle Bell Run debuts on Nov. 16 on Hallmark Channel.