Everybody fantasizes about their wedding day. We imagine the close friends and family who will be present, the father leading the bride down the aisle, and the mother dancing with her son who will be the groom.
However, occasionally our plans do not work out as we had intended. It’s all about embracing life’s challenges…
Scooter Hightower cherished his relationship with his mother beyond all others and above all other things. They were a family that stuck together through thick and thin, and they shared all of their joys and successes together.
It was a heartbreakingly tragic occasion, but one that unavoidably drew the family closer together. Terri, Scooter’s mother, was identified as having ALS in December 2019. The condition known as ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, affects the neurons in the brain that are responsible for regulating a person’s voluntary muscle movement.
The fact that ALS has no known cure caused the entire family to be saddened. The family was aware that Terri’s unavoidable demise was drawing near. And as Terri gradually lost the capacity to speak, walk, and even eat food on her own in the summer of 2020, the end began to draw near. She needed a motorized wheelchair so she could move about independently!
She had a few desires she wanted to fulfill before she passed away as her health declined. Scooter stated that his mother’s wishes were: “She was waiting for her granddaughter to be born, my niece, and she is going on six months now, seven months, and then she was waiting for our wedding. She wanted to be at our wedding.”
The date of Scooter’s nuptials was chosen for October 9, 2020. He carefully selected Thomas Finchum’s “Mothers” as the ideal song to dance to with his mother. He made the decision with the aid of his sister!
Scooter wheeled his mom out to the dance floor at the appropriate time. With his father’s assistance, he lifted her out of her wheelchair. He sustained his mom’s weight while holding her and dancing with her in front of the 150 wedding guests. No one in the house could keep a dry eye. While dancing with his mom, Scooter was also sobbing; perhaps he realized that he didn’t have much time left to spend with her. He held her entirely during the dance, her face nestled in the crook of his shoulder.
Throughout the dance, he whispered to his mother; it was a heartbreakingly wonderful moment they shared.
Scooted eased his mother back into her wheelchair as the music started to fade. The bridegroom was now visibly crying. Scooter’s friends and family came up to them to show their support for him during this difficult time and to praise the wonderful dance that his mom and child had shared.
Terri went unexpectedly at the young age of 57, just 10 days after her son’s wedding. She had worked as a paramedic for 30 years, and as a result of her dedication, 15 ambulances carried her body to the church.
Since then, Scooter has talked about his mother a lot, highlighting how kind she was and how many people she had aided in both her professional and personal lives. He also admitted that, prior to his mother’s diagnosis, he knew little about ALS and that, in the wake of her loss, he wanted to make others aware of the disease as well.
Watch the touching video below
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