When Jeni’s father, Michael Stepien, was murdered in 2006, her dream of having her father walk her down the aisle would sadly no longer be fulfilled.
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Jeni said she felt close to her dad again while walking down the aisle.
A bride is making headlines after asking a man whom she had never met to walk her down the aisle at her wedding this past Saturday.
After writing Thomas a letter, she met him on the eve of her wedding and felt her father’s heart beat for the first time in 10 years. “It was what I needed”.
“I could think of nobody more meaningful than (Thomas)”, she told The Huffington Post. “And one further thing if you’re willing, would you walk me down the aisle?'” In fact, Thomas wrote to thank the family the first Christmas after his transplant; other phone calls and letters followed over the years.
Stepien said she wanted her dad to be a part of the ceremony at St. Anselm church in Swissvale, and she felt that asking Thomas to walk her down the aisle was the flawless way. I put my hand on my wrist and my pulse is pretty strong and I asked her if she’d like to feel my pulse.
Of course, in an ideal world we would have both our parents there on our special day but unfortunately life can’t always be flawless and things don’t always turn out as planned. His teenage attacker was jailed for 40 years, USA media reported.
Thomas, at death’s door suffering from congestive heart failure, was chosen as the recipient.
He sends flowers on holidays and swaps parental advice with Stepien’s mother.
As her father lay dying, Jeni’s family chose to “accept the inevitable”, and donated his organs via the Center for Organ Recovery and Education.
“When a family gives life to someone they don’t even know, in their darkest moment… it’s unbelievable”.
CORE told AFP in a statement that they hoped the “remarkable” public response to the story would generate greater awareness about organ donation.
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Based in Pittsburgh, the center is one of 58 federally-designated charity organ procurement organizations in the United States.
