A terminally ill man who arrived at his daughter’s wedding by ambulance took her down the aisle – on a hospital bed.
Guests cried and clapped as Scott Nagy, gripped by cancer, gave his daughter Sarah away on Saturday at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Strongsville, Ohio.
A volunteer team of medical professionals helped Nagy escort the 24-year-old bride as groom Angelo Salvatore and the Rev. Chuck Knerem awaited their arrival.
‘It was a promise I made in March, to walk her down the aisle,’ the 56-year-old Brunswick man said.
‘She’s my princess. This is my definition of walking down the aisle.’
Nagy was diagnosed with urethral cancer in November and has undergone chemotherapy.
He has been at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center since August.
He reportedly has just ‘weeks to months’ to live.
Doctors were uncertain if he would be able to make the wedding, initially scheduled for next year.
But with monitor cords slipped under his tuxedo and a tracheal tube attached, he made the trip down the aisle, kissing a grandson who was the ring bearer and giving a thumb’s up.
Lying raised up on the gurney that carried him from the hospital, he escorted Sarah to the altar to meet her groom.
‘Somehow everything just fell into place for this date,’ Nagy’s wife, Jean, told cleveland.com.
‘It’s almost like it was just meant to be. The first night at the hospital, Scott said, ‘Just remember, I have to be at my daughter’s wedding in October.’ He was a big part of this. He was at the bridal shower. He went shopping for her dress. There was no way he was not going to finish this out.’
Jacky Uljanic, a nurse practitioner with the hospital, helped make the arrangements for Nagy to attend the wedding.
She put him through daily therapy to build up his strength and she checked on the logistics in advance.
Physicians Medical Transport donated the ambulance trip, and a doctor and other medical personnel accompanied Nagy on the ride.
Sarah said that since she was a little girl, she has wanted her father to escort her down the aisle when she married. The Brunswick High School teacher said her future husband assured her she would get her wish.
‘But it is what I wanted since I was a little girl, for my father to escort me down the aisle. My future husband said, ‘You will get your wish’,’ she told cleveland.com.
At the vestibule, she burst into tears and told her father she loved him.
‘We did it,’ Nagy said to her and reminded her not to streak her makeup.
He stayed to the end of the afternoon service, watching from the back of the church.
Nagy was too sick to attend the reception, so he delivered the traditional toast via Skype from his hospital bed.
Loving union: Sarah Nagy wed Angelo Salvatore on Saturday at First Lutheran Church in Strongsville, Ohio
Read more: Daily Mail
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