Dying father sees 10-year-old daughter wed in symbolic hospital ‘wedding’

A dying Missouri man who hoped he would live to see his 10-year-old daughter marry has been granted his final wish with a symbolic wedding ceremony in his hospital room.

Johnny Wells has been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for the past five years. On Sunday, his family held a mock wedding ceremony by his hospital room bedside, complete with a pledge by his daughter, Nakeol, to search for a "godly man" and remain faithful to him when she marries.

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"His baby is the reason he has stayed alive this long," Nakeol's mother, Glenda Wells, tells local news station KCTV.

A video of the ceremony posted to YouTube shows the little girl in a fancy white dress carrying a colourful bouquet of flowers to her father's bed. She agrees to her father's wishes to marry a man he would approve of, then accepts a diamond ring placed on her tiny finger by her feeble dad. She is meant to wear the ring until it is replaced by a wedding ring.

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“Later in life when I get married, I am going to play that video before my wedding and my flower girl will wear this dress I’m wearing right now,” Nakeol tells CBS.

Nakeol's mother says she's received feedback from other people who wished they'd had the opportunity to do the same with their loved ones before they passed away. It's not uncommon for couples to bump up a wedding date so that a dying family member can be part of their big day, though.

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This summer, a couple in Massachusetts organized their wedding in just three hours after learning that the groom's grandfather had just days to live.

And also this summer, a Pennsylvania couple held a casual hospital wedding where the groom's mother was battling breast cancer.

Would you opt for a hospital wedding if one of your loved ones was sick? Tell us in the comments below.