A California couple moved their wedding to a hospital chapel to fulfill the bride’s father’s dying wish to accompany his daughter down the aisle.
There was no shortage of tears at St. Joseph’s Hospital when Abraham Arceo, who is battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, handed his daughter Britney over to the love of his life.
“He’s really my hero and I’ve always looked up to him since I was a little girl. So even during this time of battling illness…he’s really important to me,” Britney said tearfully. He told WKYT.
Britney’s original wedding date was set for the end of June, but her father’s cancer has begun to progress rapidly in recent weeks.
At the time, she spoke to a nurse about having the ceremony at the hospital.
Hospital staff planned the entire wedding, including measuring the width of the doors to make sure Abraham’s wheelchair would fit through and creating a back-up plan if it couldn’t.
Luckily, it was the right size, and Abraham was wheeled up to the altar, holding his daughter’s hand and pulling the IV bag behind him.
“It’s very emotional. It’s been really hard recently and I’m so glad they did this for us. It meant so much to Britney and to me. I wanted him to be able to witness her wedding,” Abraham Arceo’s wife, Cecilia Arceo, said.
For Britney, a hospital wedding was even more special than any wedding she could have planned at a fancy venue.
“I’m happy that he’s living in the moment and supporting me because I know that’s what he would want. He just wants me to be happy,” she told the outlet.
After the ceremony, family members, nurses, doctors and hospital staff cheered on the newlyweds and the bride’s father, whose wish had come true.
