On Sat, July 28th, my Dad told me he didn’t think he was going to survive his battle with leukemia. He wanted so badly to see me married and know I was taken care of. I had a wedding planned for later in the month, but Dad felt it was too far away. I asked him did I need to move it up and he said yes he thought that would be great. So the planning began and changed daily with Dad’s progress.
It started out being Sat Aug 11 due to Dan being on a mission trip to Nicaragua and not returning until Aug 4. As Dad’s situation became worse the doctors encouraged me to up the wedding fearing Dad wouldn’t make it to the 11th. So we changed it to Tues Aug 7. Then on Sat the doctors said when does your fiance come home, I told them Sat night at 11:00pm and they said I had better do it tomorrow (Sun) if I wanted to make sure Dad was there. So the date changed once again. And when Dan called from Texas around 7:30pm I notified him the wedding was now tomorrow at 2:00pm. He was surprised and excited.
So Sun the wedding went very well. Dad was alert and didn’t have to be prompted for his lines, He was ready when the preacher asked him “who here gives this woman to be married to this man?” Dad pulled himself up in the bed and said “her mother and I.”
We decorated Dad’s room beautifully, had 2 trumpet players to play the processional and recessional, and a home made wedding cake for the reception out in the hallway.
Sun Morning when the doctor came in to check on Dad he told Dad it was Sun. Dad proceded to count: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat to see how many days were left before my wedding. The doctor was unsure what Dad was doing but later he said, “there’s going to be a wedding in your room today.” Dad asked him if it was the 11th. Dad still had the 11th in his head since that was the date we dicussed it for originally.
It was such a blessing from God to have my Daddy there and to be able to grant him his dying wish. On Monday, the nurses came in and asked Dad about the wedding and Dad remembered it and told them all about it. It was very special to me that Dad was able to be there and remember it.
Thank you Jesus for this special moment in our lives and for allowing Dad to be there. This was a priceless gift from God that we will always cherish.
