Dying Dad Fulfills Final Wish By Walking Children Down the Aisle

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Given just a few months to live by his doctors in August, Ken McHugh got busy, putting the wheels in motion for a plan he’d dreamed of fulfilling ever since he was diagnosed with stage-4 pancreatic cancer five years ago: walking his kids down the aisle, since he won’t be able to be present whenever their future weddings take place.

And on Oct. 3, in their hometown of Chester Springs, Penn., the former international businessman, 47, fulfilled his dream. Celebrating what the McHughs called a “family wedding,” Ken walked his four teenagers — daughters Samantha, 19; Julia, 15; and Kathryn, 14; and son, Dylan, 17 — to the altar, where he then renewed his own vows with his wife of 20 years, Tammy. It was a touching and painful tribute to the family’s love, for better and for worse.

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Tammy and Ken McHugh (Photo: Mary Savage)

“Cancer was just locked in a little box for the day, and everybody was purely joyful,” Tammy tells Yahoo Parenting of the tear-filled ceremony, pulled together in just six days with the help of cancer foundation, Team CMMD.

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The McHughs (Photo: Mary Savage)

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“Coming out of such a sad situation, it was remarkable to me that we got up in the morning, showered, dressed, and, when the girls were getting their hair and makeup done, everyone was smiling and chatting,” she adds. “It was all giggling and no sadness.”

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(Photo: Mary Savage)

Grief and stress, unfortunately, have been the prevailing feelings since Ken fell ill. “The most horrible and emotional thing my wife and I have ever had to do was to tell our children I was dying,“ he wrote on a Gofundme blog set up to raise money for his kids’ college tuitions. "To tell them I wouldn’t see them all turn into teenagers, wouldn’t see them graduate high school, get married…that I wouldn’t walk any of my three beautiful daughters down the aisle or get to hold and spoil any of their children, my grandchildren."

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The McHugh children (Photo: Mary Savage)

Bedridden, Ken stopped chemotherapy treatments this summer per instructions from his doctor, who urged him to enjoy the time he has left. “It’s a true struggle to enjoy the remaining days I have with my family,” the father admitted on the blog, “because my body just isn’t cooperating much lately and is basically failing me.”

The love in his heart, however, remained stronger than ever, so Ken decided he was determined to give his kids a happy memory of him that they could look back on during their lifetimes without him. “He is the best dad,” Tammy says of her husband. “He thinks only of his children and what he he can do to help them through this time.”

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(Photo: Mary Savage)

This “family wedding,” the parents both hope, will be something that the teens can treasure always. “I’ll never forget the love in the air,” Tammy says of the private event, which included just the six of them, plus a videography team that the couple enlisted to capture the day.

“The memories that came out of it are absolutely wonderful, and what’s even more special is that each child will get their own personal video that they can watch of their father reading him the personal letter that he wrote them,” she says. “They can show it at their wedding and will always have that to turn back to.” Ken also gave each child a keepsake handkerchief embroidered in blue (for a bride’s “something blue”).

Team CMMD founder Christine Meyer, MD, who helped pull the celebration together, tells Yahoo Parenting that “of all the things my foundation does to help cancer families, this was, by far the most moving.”

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(Photo: Mary Savage)

“He had no other dream than to be the best dad that he could be,” Tammy says of Ken. With the wedding, the letters and the video, she adds that now he’s comforted, knowing “there’s nothing more that he can think of to leave for them.”

The message on the handkerchief, which they can carry with them always, says it all: “For your tears, whether they are happy, or sad, know that I am with you, Love Dad.”

(Top photo: Mary Savage)

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