Like every little girl does, I use to dream about my wedding day, my father walking me down the aisle, and what song we would dance to for the father/daughter dance… On 9-11-01, all the dreaming of my wedding day literally stopped when my father was tragically killed. As years passed, I knew the day would come when I would have to start planning the day I dreaded the most- my wedding. For most-ur wedding day is suppose to be the happiest day of your life, but for me, it would be a nightmare finally coming true not having my dad there to walk me down the aisle.
11 years later, I knew I found the perfect man and one that my father would be extremely proud of. After 4 years of being together with my bf and countless talks about our future together, I knew the proposal was near…yet apart of me still wasn’t ready.
My bf & I had just had our 4 year anniversary and never got the opportunity to celebrate it because of our busy schedules. After several failed attempts of making plans, we finally just decided to take a Wednesday off from work and celebrate it late by having a fun day in the city.
We first went to go see the Broadway show Wicked. Afterwards, we decided to take a trip down to ground zero since Memorial Day was that weekend and its not to often we get an opportunity to go to the site. When we arrived, we walked over the to the fountain of the south tower. This was the actual tower my father was killed in, but it was the first time we actually got to see it finished. After that, we walked over to the north tower fountain, where my father’s name is engraved.
Right before we were about to leave my bf leaned in and said, “last night I had the opportunity to speak with your mom, since I couldn’t ask your dad in person, I wanted to make him apart of it…” at that point he quickly (not to make a scene) got down on one knee and asked, “will you marry me?”. And of course I said, YES!
I was blown away by how meaningful it truly was. I could have never dreamt of something like that. I had truly thought that my dreams of my father being involved would forever remain as just a dream. Unknowingly, my fiancé made my dream a reality the best way he could. And if that wasn’t perfect enough...my engagement ring was absolutely gorgeous! We call it the Generations Ring of Love: it has three diamonds, the one to the left (closest to my heart) is the diamond my father proposed to my mother with, the diamond to the right was the diamond that my grandfather proposed to my grandmother with, and the center diamond was the one from him. Then there are two begets on the sides in a platinum band. And to tie in his family to the ring, he had his family motto engraved on the inside of the band “Love One Another.”
Needless to say, for me, it was absolutely perfect and I no longer have the fear of my father not being there on my wedding day because apart of him will forever be holding my hand…. I never thought it would happen but I have finally have began dreaming of my wedding day again…J