- Michelle Avilla married her husband and made her father’s last wish come true
- His intensive care unit was transformed into a wedding venue with live music and photographers
- After her father died a few days later, Avilla found ‘peace’ knowing his last wish was granted
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A Texas hospital was turned into a wedding venue so a dying father could see his daughter get married and fulfill his last hope.
“It gives our hearts peace to know that his last wish was fulfilled,” his daughter said days after the wedding.
Michelle Avila was supposed to marry Antonio Moreno, but her father fell ill and was hospitalized. He just had one last request to see her get married.
The nurses at UMC Hospital in Lubbock and a wedding planning company helped Avila hold the ceremony at the facility while her father was in the intensive care unit.
“He was sitting in the aisle waiting for her,” said wedding decorator Julie Hodges Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. ‘When she turned the corner it was just a neat thing. Lots of tears, it was bittersweet, but it’s just a really cool experience and we were honored to do it and donate our time and all the stuff.’
Michelle Avilla married Antonio Moreno at UMC Hospital in Lubbock, Texas so her father could see them get married
Avilla’s father was in the intensive care unit and his condition was rapidly declining
The father’s last wish was to see his daughter married, which thanks to nurses was fulfilled
A video captured the tender ceremony and showed how a hospital corridor had been transformed into a bona fide wedding venue, complete with flower-covered chairs, guests of honor and photographers.
The couple walked down the aisle to the accompaniment of two acoustic guitars. Doctors and nurses gathered in the wings to cheer on Avila and Moreno.
Two young boys scattered flower petals from a wicker basket on the hospital floor.
The father waited patiently for his daughter in her wheelchair at the end of the hallway.
When she reached him, Michelle Avila and her father held hands and exchanged heartfelt words. The oxygen mask could not muffle the father’s happy voice.
Hodges said she, her company Eventfully Yours and the nursing staff were excited to play a part in the special ceremony.
“It was just great that we got selected and I feel like God led us there for that reason,” Hodges said.
After the ceremony ended, Avilla returned to the hospital that evening to visit her father.
Eventfully Yours, an event planning company, worked tirelessly to transform the hospital into a proper wedding venue
The doctors and nurses at UMC spared no effort to make the father’s wish come true, cheering the wedding as they walked down the aisle
Avilla’s father sadly passed away on March 13, just days after the wedding ceremony
In a Facebook post, she said she was ‘grateful’ she did because ‘it was so nice to hear him talk about how happy he was.’
The next day, the father’s condition ‘took a turn for the worse’ and Avilla ‘was no longer able to hear his voice’.
On March 13, her father died just days after seeing his daughter get married.
In his Facebook post, Avilla expressed his gratitude to the hospital and its staff. She thanked Eventfully Yours, the resourceful wedding company, who made the hospital a suitable venue at a few hours’ notice.
And Avilla thanked ‘the kind-hearted nurses who filled our lives with so much love, along with the hundreds of strangers who prayed for him.’
Although she lost her beloved father, Avilla said they ‘feel a peace that passes understanding even in the midst of grief.’