I sat in front of the mirror, my fingers brushing against the lace of my bridal gown, tracing the exquisite floral designs sewn into the fabric.
Today was the day.
I was marrying Sam.
The love of my life.
A tear tickled the corner of my eye, and I chuckled at myself, wiping it away before it fell.
“Careful,” my maid of honor, Lauren, teased from the doorway, holding out a flute of champagne. “We spent way too long on your makeup for you to ruin it now.”
“I just…” My voice wavered. “I can’t believe this is real.”
And in just thirty minutes, I’d be heading down the aisle toward the man I’d loved for what seemed like an eternity.
I stood at the altar, my pulse hammering, my fingers curled around my bouquet, and locked eyes with Sam, my five-year fiancé.
Then the door creaked open.
A woman walked in.
She looked amazing. She had long, dark hair cascading over one shoulder and lips painted a vivid, vibrant red.
But it wasn’t her attractiveness that gave me a cold.
It was how she looked at Sam.
“Aren’t you going to tell them?” she asked, her voice smooth and confident.
“Tell us what?” I swallowed.
“That you’re already married, Sam,” she said.
I glanced at Sam, expecting him to chuckle, shake his head, or just do anything… anything!
But he did not.
Instead, he moved forward.
And then, right in the middle of our wedding, he walked to her.
God help me, he wrapped his arms around her.
Sam moved his lips, whispering something into her ear. Something only she could hear.
She gave a gentle laugh.
“I…” He exhaled sharply, rubbing a hand down his face. “Hazel, I need to explain this.”
I turned to her, my voice trembling.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Anna,” she said simply.
She was his childhood best buddy. Someone he had been close to for many years. But he never discussed marriage.
“Sam,” I said, forcing the words to come out. “Tell me the truth. Right now. In front of all our family and friends.”
“When we were kids, we had a pretend wedding,” he admitted. “Candy ring pops, a few scribbled vows, and Anna trying to play a song on her ukulele. We thought it was the real deal at the time. We were twelve.”
“But Anna is my best friend, that’s all.”
“Then why did you hold her like that? Why did she just walk in here and say that?”
“A few years ago,” he said, “Anna was in a terrible car accident.”
“The doctors said that she might never walk again.”
“Anna spent years in rehab, fighting to get her life back,” Sam continued. “I invited her to the wedding because how could I not have her here? But she told me that she wouldn’t be able to come.”
“I wanted to walk through those doors by myself,” Anna said just as softly.
“I’ve been practicing with heels for a long time now. I’ve literally been teaching myself how to walk in them for your day.”
“I’m so sorry for the drama, Hazel,” she said, her voice laced with something between guilt and amusement. “Sam and I have always pranked each other, and I thought… why not one last time?”
Tears flowed from the back of my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. This woman clawed her way back up, determined to regain her foothold.
I smiled at Sam.
“And I am so happy for you both. Truly,” Anna said.
The room was still. Then there was laughter.
The tension in the room subsided, and the vibe shifted as the visitors murmured and chuckled gently.
My wedding had been a dream.
The love. The joy. The warmth of it all.
Dad & daughter recreate high school grad photo 18 years later – people look closer and spot one detail they can’t let go
Watching your children graduate – be it high school or college – is truly an unforgettable milestone moment as a parent.
Anyone who’s experienced it will surely recall the bursting pride, the untapped joy that comes from seeing your not-so-little one close out a chapter in their lives wherein they’ve worked so hard to achieve a specific goal.
Those positive feelings must have been ten-fold for Texas dad Dennis Roach in 2018, as his daughter’s high-school graduation gave him the opportunity to recreate a photo taken back in 2000 – and the result was enough to warm hearts all over the world…
When Dennis graduated high school in 2000, he was lucky enough to have his infant daughter, Tori, present for the celebrations. At the time, the pair posed for a photo in which Dennis gave his little girl a kiss – the perfect keepsake reminder of his big day.
Fast forward to 2018, and it was Tori Roach’s turn to mark the moment when she finished high school. Needless to say, Dennis was there to share the milestone, and the pair had the brilliant idea of recreating the photo they
In the new version, Tori lay across her father’s arms as he once again kissed her cheek. She uploaded a side-by-side image – with the pictures from 2000 and 2018 – to Twitter, but no one could have guessed just how well it would be received by people online.
“18 years later,” Tori captioned her post. It soon went viral, accumulating almost 150,000 likes and 57,000 reposts.
The comments field was filled with people expressing their joy at the photo.
“Ugh this is just the sweetest,” one person wrote.
Another added: “One of the best pictures I have seen … I wish you and your family the best of luck.”
“Wow lovely…” a third said.
Yet arguably the most fascinating element of the two photos was the detail a lot of people spotted and couldn’t help but comment on. Namely, the fact that Tori’s dad Dennis doesn’t appeared to have aged at all in the intervening years between when the two photos were snapped.
“How old is your father,” mused one person. “He looks ageless.”
“I think you froze your father until you grow up,” another joked.
“Damn did you dad age any?” a third quipped.
Tori couldn’t believe the attention her post received, and was later forced to clarify that her dad, aged 37 at the time of her high school graduation, wasn’t single.
Furthermore, she spoke to People of Dennis’s pride.
“I woke up and I had a ton of notifications. People had started sharing and liking and commenting all over again. My dad was really proud. We’re from a small town, so nothing like this really ever happens. And he was like, ‘That’s so cool!’”
She added: “It brought me and my dad closer in a way because we could share that moment, and I feel that not many other people get to experience that.”
Such a heartwarming story of the obvious love between a father and his daughter. If you found this story interesting, check out the secret Michael Jordan’s been hiding his entire life that was recently revealed by his children!
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