Bride Moves Wedding So Dad Can Walk Her Down Aisle

She changes venue to Bernard Reeves' care center
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 19, 2014 8:52 AM CDT
Bride Moves Wedding So Ailing Dad Give Her Away
Miriam Reeves is escorted down the aisle by her father, Bernard Reeves, 64, and her mother, Marie Reeves, during her wedding at Foundation Park Alzheimer's Care in Toledo, Ohio, Aug. 16, 2014.   (AP Photo/The Toledo Blade, Amy E. Voigt)

Most weddings have at least a few wet eyes in attendance. But when 30 guests watched Miriam Reeves escorted down the aisle by her beaming father Saturday, few could hold back their tears. Just a month earlier, Miriam, 31, decided to move her traditional church wedding in Michigan to the garden at the Foundation Park Alzheimer's Care Center in Toledo, Ohio, where her father, Bernard Reeves, 64, has been a resident since his Alzheimer's symptoms got worse two years ago. She had been worried he'd wander off if he had to leave the center to attend a wedding elsewhere.

"My dad has been my hero my entire life and I know that if he was well, he would be at my wedding front and center," Miriam tells the Toledo Blade. "And I thought, 'Why not move it there and it would be more of a special event.'" The staff was enthusiastic, she says, adding that she believes her wedding was the first to be held at the center. Her father served in the Army during the Vietnam War, then became a police chaplain, and was also a pastor in Detroit, reports the AP. He is now in an advanced stage of the disease, but he still recognizes his daughter. (Also over the weekend, a New York cop got to see the baby he saved 20 years ago get married.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X