Photographer Gives 11-Year-Old the Gift of a Walk Down the Aisle with Her Dying Dad

PetaPixel ^ | 4/3/2014

[llevrok]

Photographer Lindsey Villatoro of Lovesong Photography recently did something that is warming the hearts of the entire photo community and beyond: she gave a daughter the surprise of a lifetime when she put together a ceremony where her dying father got the chance to walk her down the aisle — something he very likely won’t get to do again.

Villatoro is a wedding and portrait photographer who spends her free time working with charities and cancer organizations to give the gift of photography to terminally ill patients and their families. That’s how she met the Zetz family.

Jim Zetz, 62, has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and so he and his wife Grace scheduled a photo shoot with Villatoro. During the shoot she found out that their daughter Josie would be turning 11 on March 14th, and so she offered to do something for her as well.

When she got home she posted the story to her website to see if she could raise some money or gifts for Josie’s 11th birthday. This could be the last birthday she gets to spend with her father, and Villatoro wanted to make sure it would be extra special.

[llevrok]

Get your tissues handy. Sad, but sweet story...

[mark3681]

THANKS A LOT! I can’t see a damned thing now!

Stories like this remind me that I’m still human. Thanks!

[Mercat]

Nice. I’m sure it will be played at her real wedding.

[Tired of Taxes]

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[Gay State Conservative]

Our mother died when my little sister was 16.She had been quite ill (cancer) for 2 years before she died.On my sister's wedding day,when my she was talking to me and our two brothers,she started weeping almost uncontrollably.We assumed that she was just overcome with happiness but then she said "I just wish Mum was here".

Powerful stuff.As is *this* story.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Notice a lot of commentators have been projecting their own disordered sexual thoughts on this story. I wonder where they stand on the political spectrum?

[catbertz]

I literally couldn’t believe how they were perceiving this touching event. A sure sign of the insanity dwelling within that they would rant about child slavery and other nonsense.

[the OlLine Rebel]

So sweet. Thank you!