A heartbroken bride who brought her wedding forward so her dying dad could be there was devastated when her mum then died of a heart attack four days before her big day.
Kelly Galt, 32, now wants to relive the day in happier circumstances after she spent her wedding awaiting the post mortem results for her mum, Pauline.
Mum-of-two Kelly and her husband Alan, 42, decided to bring their wedding forward to last March after they discovered her dad Robert had terminal cancer, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Kelly said, “Last year my dad got penile cancer and he had an operation and we thought it was okay at that stage.
“I was a home carer at the time and I went to my dad’s neighbour and she said ‘I don’t think he is telling you the truth’ and that’s when my husband rang him and he told us it was terminal.”
READ MORE
She was not your wife, judge tells man seeking to end 22-year-union
Four relatives, bride killed in road crash after dowry talks
Determined to be walked down the aisle by her dad, Kelly and Alan urgently planned a wedding to be held five weeks later.
But just four days before the big day, Kelly woke up to the devastating news her mum, 56, had died suddenly in her sleep.
Kelly said, “It was all going well until that Monday morning before the wedding when I woke up and had ten missed calls, and then my husband told me that my mum had died.
"I had the shock of my life.
“When it came to the wedding, I didn’t know what to do.
"I still wanted to do it for my dad, but I also didn’t want to go through with it because my mum wouldn’t be there.”
Kelly, from Everton, made the agonising decision to go ahead with the wedding so her dad could walk her down the aisle before he passed away.
Mum to Lacy, four, and Louis, two, Kelly then spent her wedding day awaiting the post mortem results and dreading the upcoming funeral.
Kelly said, “It was just a big black cloud over the day and I kept looking at my dad who was just withering away too.”
Looking back at her big day, which she dreamed of being the happiest of her life, Kelly said she only feels guilt at going ahead with the wedding.
She said, “My husband had to deal with me all day, and I just feel so guilty. I felt guilty my mum wasn’t there.
“My dad couldn’t stay that long, he came to the registry office then went home.
"Then I felt guilty after he had gone. Everyone else was enjoying themselves, but part of me wanted to go home with him.”
Robert died a month after the wedding at the age of 59.
Now the couple is hoping they can relive their day and make better memories.
Kelly said, “I’ve said if we can afford it, I would hope we could do it again and take away the guilt and sad memories and make it more of a happy occasion.
“Now when I see people getting married I think of how I never had that experience. I want to feel like most brides.”
