THE FIRST, LAST DANCE

Okay, the heartless bastard that I am, even this story got me a little choked up, so I thought I'd share it with you. This is 25-year-old Rachel Wolf of Auburn, California. She's not engaged to be married or anything, but her terminally ill father, who was given only six months to live, will never see her get married. So, she decided to stage a father-daughter first dance filled with flowers, a tux, a wedding dress, a DJ, a limo, etc., and she pre-recorded it in hopes to one day play the recording at her real wedding, where her father will be represented after he passes. I'm telling you that there will not be a dry eye in the house after she plays this recording!

Poignant footage shows Dr. James Wolf, who is suffering from pancreatic cancer, twirling his little girl around on the dance floor to Steven Curtis Chapman's "Cinderella". Friends and family in Auburn all chipped in to donate a wedding dress, DJ, tuxedo, limousine, hairstylist, professional photographer, and a gazebo for the event. Dr. Wolf says he was flabbergasted when asked about his daughter's request. He told the Today show, "There are a lot of things that I would've liked the girls to experience with me being there and I'm not going to be there." Rachel said that she didn't want to miss the opportunity to involve her dad in her big day. She said, "I just thought, if I get the dress and record it, I can have it for whomever. I don't want to regret one day that I could have done it." Are you crying yet?

I think that she did an amazing thing. I am coming up to the one year anniversary of my aunt passing and she was one of those aunts that was like a mother to my sister and me. I miss her every day. Last year, around this time, the family found out she only had a few months to live. Unfortunately, the cancer attacked faster than the doctors anticipated and those few months turned into a few weeks. It was really difficult to see my aunt weak and almost helpless like that. Like Rachel, I wanted to do something to lift her spirits and her memory. We really wanted her to see our new house, but at this point she was too weak to make a long drive to visit us. So, knowing that my aunt loved taking pictures at family events and just about any other photo op that arose, I decided to put together a photo book based around her life. I included photos from when she was a little girl with my mother, all the way up to 2012. In the beginning of this book, I wrote her a letter about my feelings towards her, which took a lot of tears to write. When I presented her with the book, she smiled and as weak as she was, gave me this huge hug that still brings me to tears when I think about it. My aunt passed the next day. My point in telling that story to coincide with Rachel's story was that sometimes the little things like a photo book or a video can make a dying person's day. What Rachel did was amazing and I hope one day she gets to play that video at her wedding!