A video has gone viral of a man getting emotional as his stepdaughter asks him to give her away at her wedding.
21-year-old Brianna Gibson from California gave her stepdad Tim a card on Father’s Day this year which asked him to give her away at her upcoming wedding to fiancé Nolan.
As he read the touching message inside, Tim broke down in tears.
You can watch the footage here:
Speaking exclusively to UNILAD, Brianna explained how her parents got married and divorced at a very young age, each moving on to new relationships.
Her dad married a woman called Nicole and while they were together they had a daughter named Kylee, who is now 14 years old.
Tragically Brianna’s dad tragically died by suicide in 2009 but even though he was gone, Nicole raised her like she was her own.
Brianna added:
My dad was the best dad. He was artistic, athletic, funny, loving, and kind. He was my best friend.
He fought long and hard with addiction and depression. In November 2009 my dad committed suicide. No one saw it coming. We were all shattered. We no longer had our dad. It was the hardest day of my entire life. I was 13-years-old at the time.
My mum and Nicole made it a point to make sure my sister Kylee and I always stuck together.
Nicole continued to treat me, include me and raise me as her own even though my dad was gone. She kept me in her life as her ‘bonus baby’ and I will forever be grateful for the relationship we have today because of her decision to continue to love me as her own child when she didn’t have to.
In 2012 Nicole then married Tim, who Brianna refers to as her stepdad, and together they had a daughter named Lexi who is currently five years old.
As Brianna says, ‘Tim jumped right into the father role from the get go’ and so she decided to ask him to give her away at her wedding.
Brianna is set to marry Nolan in June 2019 after he proposed last year having been together since 2015.
She felt ‘the right time’ to ask Tim to walk her down the aisle was on Father’s Day:
Of course with getting married came the big question, ‘who’s walking you down the aisle?’ I had no doubt in my mind though that I wanted to ask Tim! I had to keep it a surprise because I knew if I caught him off guard I would get the best, most pure reaction.
My mum, Nicole and Nolan were the only ones who knew and we’ve all known for months! It was so hard keeping it a secret.
I chose to ask Tim to walk me down the aisle on Father’s Day. I knew we would all be together and I wanted it to be special and special it was! When he started to cry, we all started to cry!
Overwhelmed by Tim’s emotional response, Brianna shared the video on Twitter as ‘his reaction was so good I just had to’.
It went viral receiving, at time of writing (June 27), over 83,000 likes:
Brianna couldn’t believe the reaction her tweet got:
I’m the type of person who gets one favourite or retweet every so often so when I opened my phone hours later to finding hundreds and thousands of retweets and favourites and over a million views, I freaked out! All of us were like ‘huh? Are you sure? It has how many views?!’
I will forever hold this video and this memory close to my heart! I’m so thankful to have the family that I do and I’m so excited to see how much crying is going to take place on our wedding day, not just from me but from Tim too. I know it’s cliche but I’m seriously blessed with the best!
We wish you and Nolan all the best with your wedding day Brianna.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues, and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
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