When professional photographer Meredith Kavanaugh was a young girl she’d imagined the day when her dad would lead her in the father-daughter dance on her wedding day. Yet, as her father’s 12-year battle with terminal prostate cancer neared its end, the unmarried young lady knew she’d have to capture a final dance with her father early. So, dressed as the bride she one day hoped to become, she did.
“Thankfully, God is so GOOD! I am a professional photographer. I know the importance of capturing memories that will last a lifetime,” Kavanaugh explained to Love What Matters. So with the help of her family members, and bridal shop Classic Bride, which lent her a dress for the occasion, she had that all-important dance. Her father, who had saved all his energy for the occasion, dressed in a smart jacket and carefully got out of his wheelchair to take his daughter in his arms.
It is clear from the video that the dancing duo are in their own bubble. Her father told her how beautiful she was, and we can imagine them both soaking up every second of the short dance. “It didn’t matter that I wasn’t even engaged yet … he knew one day I would be, and he was so proud of me and the person I had become, and he told me so,” Kavanaugh shared.
Sadly, the next day, on Easter Sunday, Kavanaugh’s father passed away with his family by his side. And just a few years later, at Easter time again, Kavanaugh reconnected with a family friend named Bryan, who went on to become her husband in January 2018. On their wedding day, when the father-daughter dance would have taken place, the beautiful bride got to watch her first dance recorded those few years before, while she danced with her brothers to the song “Daughters,” by John Mayer.
Naturally the whole wedding party was in tears at this emotional moment and Kavanaugh says: “Tears still run down my face when I think about this moment … tears of longing, because I miss my dad terribly, but also tears of joy and gratitude of how everyone came together to make this perfect miracle a reality for me.”
