Daughter gets married in hospital so dying father can walk her down the aisle

A loving daughter moves up her wedding and marries in the hospital so her dying father could be a part of it.

Vieneese Rolan was supposed to wed her husband Douglas Stanton in April 2018 but after learning her father, Preston Rolan was dying, she refused to accept that he may not be there for her wedding. So she devised a way to ensure his presence on one of the most important days of her life.

When Vieneese learned in February 2017 that her father had acute leukemia and had a short time to live, she didn’t think twice about moving her wedding up earlier to accommodate him. She knew how excited her father was when she got engaged and she didn’t want to dampen his frail spirits by robbing him of the opportunity to walk her down the aisle.

The wedding was held on November 2017 and Vieneese even surprised her father by holding it in the hospital where he was being treated, the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Surrounded by friends, family, and nurses, Preston walked her down the hospital aisle.

Vieneese told People her father had no clue she was planning her hospital wedding and even involved the nurses who decorated venue, bought the cake and even bought a suit for her father.

“My dad didn’t even know we were planning this. I was working alongside the nurses and my bridal party.”

Vieneese also revealed the nurses had to take her father for a walk so he wouldn’t see her at the hospital prior to the wedding. And his reaction when she surprised him before the ceremony was worth all the effort.

“He was completely surprised. He really was about to start crying. He was bragging. He was telling all the nurses, ‘This is my daughter. This is my daughter!’”

It turned out to be a beautiful ceremony as photos proved. Vieneese’s smile was priceless as her father walked her down the halls of the hospital and nurses and guests stood along its sidelines. Vieneese didn’t expect the wedding to turn out so big and lovely.

Vieneese was five months pregnant at the time of her wedding and revealed she was carrying a baby girl. She even had a gender reveal party in her father’s hospital room which excited her father even more.

Less than a month after the wedding, Preston succumbed to his illness and passed away. A devastated Vieneese mourned his loss but was determined to share his father’s legacy. In May 2018, the Stanton-Standards Foundation was launched to provide lasting memories for family members with loved ones who have a terminal illness.

One of its first projects was a woman named Yvonne with a heart condition and one year left to live. The foundation raised funds to treat Yvonne and her friends and family to a nice dinner at Oakland’s Southern Café.

Vieneese is proud of the work they do and hopes to help others who are going through what she had gone through in the hopes of easing the pain of knowing a loved one is about to go.

Meanwhile, a bride didn’t get the chance Vieneese had. Her father passed away just before her wedding but her brother planned a surprise that would ease her pain. Andrea Middleton was listening to her brother Nick’s speech during her wedding reception when he surprised her with a tribute. Knowing that she wasn’t going to get a father-daughter dance, he designed a way for her to dance to every member of her family in lieu of their dad. Andrea was filled with emotion as the song “Butterfly Kisses,” played and each of her male family members approached her to dance. There was no dry eye in the room, especially Andrea’s.