When the sun cast its warm glow over Fishing Creek Floral Company in Pennsylvania, 75-year-old Navy veteran Paul Hulse, recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, gathered with his family of 20 for a special photo shoot.
As Hulse stood with his family for the photo, his 41-year-old daughter Megan Knorr sneaked up from behind.
Dressed in a white silk wedding gown, she tapped his shoulder and asked if he was ready for a wedding.
Tears welled up in his eyes as he replied, “I’ve been ready for a long time.”
“Are you ready for a wedding today?” photographer Bridgette Lynn, 29, sought a definite answer.
“Now?” he asked, confused.
“Yes, now,” Megan replied.
“I think it started to hit him, and then he realized over… it was a very special moment,” Megan told The Epoch Times.
“I had no idea about her wedding,” Hulse said, at a loss for words. “I obviously knew we were taking photos today, but the wedding was a wonderful surprise for me.”
After the initial shock and tears, Hulse felt “excited” that Megan and Jeffrey Knorr finally tied the knot after being together for 12 years.
On August 8, Hulse was diagnosed with extensive-stage small cell lung neuroendocrine cancer.
Following the shocking diagnosis, he and his family were devastated.
To create precious memories with her father, Megan and her 36-year-old sister Mandy Dinino decided to organize a special family photoshoot for their father. In their grief, Megan expressed her wish to get married and have her father walk her down the aisle.
The sisters decided to combine these two ideas and plan a surprise wedding, keeping it a secret from their father.
“It started off all very chaotic, but we tried to get it to run smoothly,” Megan said, revealing that she applied for a marriage license with Jeffrey on August 28.
On September 5, full-time mom Dinino shared the family’s predicament on a local Facebook group and asked for help finding a photographer at a lower cost to capture the wedding.
An hour later, Lynn, an electronic health record analyst and owner of 122 Photography, LLC studio, came across the post and was deeply moved as a veteran herself. She responded to Dinino’s request and agreed to shoot the wedding for free.
“She was completely on board with the surprise wedding,” Dinino said, adding that Lynn suggested holding it at the flower farm owned by her cousin’s daughter.
The kindness of ordinary Pennsylvanians shone brightly.
Three days before the wedding, Megan visited Exclusive You, a high-end bridal boutique, to share the plans for the surprise wedding.
“They accommodated me, pulling out all kinds of dresses and made me feel very special,” Megan said. “They ended up giving me a dress that was supposed to be $1,200, but only charged $500, which was just out of the kindness of their hearts.”
Fortunately, the dress required no alterations and fit like a glove.
Not only the bridal shop owner displayed her kindness. District Judge Craig Long, who was officiating the wedding, shortened his birthday plans upon hearing about the family’s surprise event.
The day had finally arrived, a truly special moment for this family.
“The weather was not too hot or too cold, and the sun was setting perfectly,” Lynn, collaborating with Willow Springs Photography to capture the wedding, remarked.
The photos included a picture of Hulse’s late granddaughter, who passed away in August 2022 due to leukemia. The family pays tribute to her at all family events.
For Lynn, capturing this surprise wedding was a privilege.
“In my 10 years of photography, I have never cried at a shoot,” she said. “Seeing it all unfold in that moment, I teared up, and I was like, ‘Oh, I need some tissues.'”
Megan described her father as “humorous,” “sweet,” and “awesome,” stating she has always been “daddy’s girl.”
Though she struggles to keep in touch with him, she does her utmost and is there for him whenever he needs her.
“I’m the youngest in the family, and my older siblings always teased me about being Dad’s favorite,” she said. “But parents don’t play favorites.”
Hulse, originally from Hainesport, New Jersey, now resides in Danville, Pennsylvania, just a 15-minute drive from his two daughters in Bloomsburg. Since his cancer diagnosis, he no longer works as a modular home escort driver, a job he held for the past 40 years.
Doctors have given him 4 to 6 months to live. In his battle against cancer, he remains steadfast, making significant dietary changes and seeking holistic treatment options.
“I’m going to heal myself with food, with the things that God provides,” Hulse said.