Bride Led Father-Daughter Dance With Dying Dad in Wheelchair
This Bride Led Her Terminally Ill Dad in a Wheelchair Through a Tear-Jerking Wedding Dance
Father-Daughter Dance - Jim and Mary BourneSweetest Father-Daughter Dance ever! The bride, Mary Bourne Roberts (now Mrs. James Butts) is a professional dance teacher. Her father, attorney Jim Roberts, has a limited time on this earth. Mary Bourne chose "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack for their Father-Daughter Dance and its just great! (Camera is hand held so please excuse the bumpiness). UPDATE: Mary Bourne’s dad, Jim Roberts, passed away Thursday, January 10th at noon.
Posted by Blue Room Photography on Wednesday, January 2, 2019
When it came time for Mary Bourne Butts to join hands with her dad for the father-daughter dance at her wedding, it was clear that by the end of the song, there wouldn't be a dry eye in the reception hall.
That's in part because the dance almost didn't even happen. Jim Roberts was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer in May 2017 and by mid-December 2018, right before his Daughter's Dec. 29 wedding, he was placed into hospice care.
Still, he didn't let that or the fact that he was wheelchair-bound stop him from taking his daughter's hands in a moving dance at her wedding in Alabama.
Their song didn't help quell impending tears: the two chose Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance," a song that the two danced around to in their kitchen growing up. Long ago, they'd agreed it'd be their special song at her eventual wedding.
Now a professional dance teacher, Mary led her father around the dance floor with grace and love, adding twirls and kisses throughout. You can see friends and family wiping tears from their eyes as they danced. By the end, even Jim himself couldn't keep himself from crying.
We don't blame him one bit. We couldn't, either.
