In Simple Act, New Syrian Refugee Saves Bride's Big Day

Master tailor Ibrahim Haltl Dudu got to work right away on stubborn zipper
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 30, 2016 6:22 AM CDT
In Simple Act, New Syrian Refugee Saves Bride's Big Day
A photo by Lindsay Coulter of Ibrahim Haltl Dudu working on the wedding dress.   (GoFundMe)

Toronto's Jo Du was stepping into her dress on her wedding day when a small disaster struck—the zipper broke. Bridesmaids fussed over it without any success and so ventured next door to look for tools that might help. It turns out that the neighbors were hosting a refugee family from Syria who'd arrived four days earlier, and the father, Ibrahim Haltl (or Halil) Dudu, just happened to be a master tailor, reports the CBC. Within minutes, and with a little help from Google Translate, he identified the problem and Du was sewn seamlessly into her dress. "I was so excited and so happy," Dudu said through a translator, per CTV News. "I like to help Canadian people from my heart."

Du and her husband, Earl Lee, meanwhile, said they were especially moved being immigrants (from China) themselves. "We're so lucky that happened to us, and so grateful," says Lee. It turns out that Dudu had a tailor business in Syria years ago that was destroyed by bombs, says the neighbor now hosting him and his family. Wedding photographer Lindsay Coulter's Facebook post about the day has been shared more than 10,000 times. "Every weekend I take photos of people on the happiest days of their lives, and today one man who has seen some of the worst things our world has to offer came to the rescue," she writes. (A young American boy's request to help a young Syrian boy went viral.)

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