The wedding day is a special occasion. For the bride to share her day with loved ones. For the father of the bride, this is a chance to have a special father-daughter dance. A wedding is a turning point in the lives of many girls.
But for one woman, the desire to dance with her father at a wedding appeared before she found her fiancé — her father was terminally ill and she needed to act quickly to fulfill her lifelong dream.
Lynn Parnell, of Cornelius, North Carolina, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003 and spent more than a decade battling the disease. In May 2015, his family was told that he only had a few weeks to live.
His daughter Meredith wanted her dream wedding, where she would dance with her dear father, to happen. But, unfortunately, she did not have a fiancé. On April 3, 2015, Meredith borrowed a beautiful dress and entered the living room where her father was waiting for her.
Lynn immediately began to cry, kissed his daughter’s hand, and used all his strength to get up from the wheelchair.
“This moment is priceless. He danced for as long as he could before his power ran out. Which present.”
Unfortunately, Lynn died two days later.
“When my father and I danced, he told me how proud he was of me and how beautiful I looked—it became very much like my real wedding,” Meredith said.
Three years later, Meredith got married and was able to turn on a video of dancing with her father on her wedding day. Meredith said that seeing her father on video on her big day made her overwhelmed with emotion, but it only gave her strength.
