Prepare for your heart to melt.
Just 16 months prior to the big day, Bert had suffered a serious fall, which left him needing to be resuscitated and unable to walk.
To give him motivation to recover – and to honour their close bond – Rachel asked 95-year-old Bert to be her ‘flower grandad’, taking on the traditional role of flower girl.
Remarkably, Bert made a full recovery, and walked down the aisle 16 months later, scattering flower petals on the floor.
Bert said: ‘Believe anything is possible. I can’t believe I got to watch my granddaughter get married.’
Rachel, 29, got engaged to her partner, Andy, 29, in December 2021, but just two months later, Bert had his life-threatening fall.
He was resuscitated by medics, and the fall also lead him to develop vocal cord palsy – a voice disorder that occurs when the vocal folds don’t open or close properly.
Doctors told Rachel and her family Bert might not survive, and even if he did, he would not be able to walk or talk.
But, after having a tracheotomy fitted – a surgical airway management procedure – Bert was motivated to make it to Rachel’s wedding.
Rachel, who works in marketing, from Milton Keynes, said: ‘I believed he would get better, and it was during that when I said I wanted to honour him and make him feel really special.
‘I asked him to be my ‘flower grandad’ – that was such a big part of his recovery.
‘He was so excited when we first asked him, he didn’t understand what it was, but we explained it to him, and he was very much ready for the role.
‘He was still unable to talk at that point, but he wrote a note that said: “I will make it to your wedding”.’
And, beating the odds, Bert did just that.
‘He makes everyone so happy – he is always the first on the dance floor,’ said Rachel.
‘He loves to make people laugh and smile.’
Amy Humphries 26, a content creator, captured the special moment on camera and said it was ‘spectacular’.
Amy, from Dunstable, Bedfordshire, said: #It is definitely the first time I have seen it before.
‘I remember when me and Rachel were talking through the plan of the day, I knew she would have a spectacular wedding.
‘There were lots of special touches throughout the whole day.’
As well as having a flower grandad, Rachel wrote poems for all of her guests and had a flash mob down the aisle.
Rachel said: ‘I was super excited to marry my husband, but also for me it is a day where you have everyone you love in one room.
‘I was really keen to make it special for the people that were special to me.’
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