Daughter Knows Dad with Cancer Won't Live To See Wedding, Sets Up Dance Before He Dies
The end of the biblical book of Ecclesiastes is peppered with poignant images that describe death. It urges readers to focus on the most important things in life “before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”
Novelist Henry James was so taken with this imagery that he named his 1904 novel “The Golden Bowl.” Indeed, I think it’s an amazing way to describe a life.
Think of your existence as a precious container filled with all the minutes and moments you’ve experienced. One of the most painful parts of a person’s passing is that all those experiences so quickly leak away.
A North Carolina woman, though, didn’t want her father’s bowl to be broken before she could fill it with a special moment. In 2015, Meredith Parnell knew that her dad, Cornelius, didn’t have long to live.
Cornelius — or Lynn, as his friends called him — had fought a rare form of prostate cancer for 12 years. Treatments had kept the terrible illness at bay, but doctors had unfortunate news.
The cancer had spread to Lynn’s liver, and he had mere weeks to live. That tragic announcement made Meredith start to think.
“From the moment I found out about his diagnosis, a million questions ran through my head,” she told The Sun. “Eventually my mind wandered to the day I’d get married, and the fact he had to be there for it.
“He had to walk me down the aisle, (and) he had to dance with me at my wedding. He has to be okay.”
There was a fundamental problem, though. Yes, Lynn was far too sick to walk on his own much less walk his daughter down the aisle.
But there weren’t likely to be wedding bells anytime soon. Meredith wasn’t even in a relationship at the time.
“At the time I wasn’t even dating anyone, and as the cancer came back each time it was one of many worries in the back of my mind,” she said. “I think any unmarried girl would have that thought about her father, especially when you were as close as me and my dad were.”
So Meredith decided to get creative. She borrowed a wedding dress and told her father to rest up.
Then she staged a father-daughter dance for just the two of them, a foretaste of the sweet moment they would never actually get to share. Lynn put all of his efforts into it and danced until his strength gave out.
It must’ve been the crowning moment of Lynn’s final days. He passed away a mere 48 hours later.
In a way, he actually did get to dance with his daughter at her actual nuptials. Meredith married Bryan Kavanaugh on January 6.
She danced with her husband and brother, and during each turn around the floor, the video of her and her father played on a projector screen. “Having this moment to look back on is more incredible that I could ever put into words,” she said.
“At the wedding, there were a few people unable to watch it and excused themselves because it was too emotional. It’s a true miracle that I was able to have this moment.”
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