Two little words: An image captured in our mind. The dream of a little girl.  The hope of a Bride-to-be.

In one silly car ride several years ago, we were driving home from Columbia. A picture-perfect scene: Parents in the front seat, children in the back seat. We’d done this a thousand times, however, this trip is frozen in my mind. As car rides go with your kids, you talk about all kinds of non-sense from who’s “going with who” to how bad the school lunches are to some drawn out, convoluted story that Meghan or Madison heard from a friend who heard from a friend’s cousin’s friend who told them about something crazy they just knew was fact!  We listen, we laugh.

On this particular road trip, we came upon the question of what would be our super hero ability. Each of us tried to come up with the most outlandish skill with a story as to why we’d want that ability. Meghan wanted to leap tall buildings, which we predicted would be Macy’s or Dillard’s so she could get to the shoe sales quicker. Madison wanted to have super-human hearing, which we thought was hilarious since she is known for zoning out when TV is on.  I wanted to be invisible, which the girls razed me was because I’d just spy on them.  Each statement was followed by giggling because of the absurdness of it all!  Including Mike.  It was a funny conversation.  One daughter teased, “Dad, your turn. What would you like?”  With a pause, Mike offered that his super-human ability would be to walk his daughters down the aisle when they get married.  Upon hearing that, the contest was over.  We couldn’t one-up that.  His words froze in the air because we realized that while we take his MS for granted, the reality of it, and the progression of it, are ever-present in his mind.

Mike was diagnosed with MS in April of 2004, 8 months after his first symptom appeared.  That first symptom appeared out of nowhere in August 2003 at the age of 42. The “quick” diagnosis is the reason he is doing so well handling his disease. In those 8 months, he underwent painful tests to rule out other diseases.  And the tests that confirm MS are no walk in the park. They involve a lumbar puncture to remove spinal fluid.  The spinal tap was always followed by a “spinal tap headache” relieved only with a “blood patch”.  None of those words are pretty by themselves, let alone together.  In between the first symptom and the final diagnosis, we went to 7 doctors from optometrists to neuro-ophthalmologists to neurologists.  The journey took us from Centralia to Columbia to St. Louis to Columbia again.

The aisle is the dream of every bride.  All of her life she envisions making that grand march to join hands with her groom.  Meghan has earned that walk. She and Shannon have grown up together and have made all the right choices to be allowed to make that walk together.  They met in kindergarten.  Their day, their walk, their aisle are coming soon.

But there is another person who has longed for that aisle.  Unbeknownst to us, that aisle has been Mike’s clear and present vision.  The father-of-the-bride has dreamed since 2003 of being able to make that walk with his daughter.  And God willing, in a few years, he’ll get to do it again arm-and-arm with our second daughter.

On May 29, 2010, Mike will dress in his tuxedo and drive us to the church.  He’ll look dashing in his tuxedo, but me and for Meghan and Madison, we’ll know that it serves as his cape.  At 2pm, on May 29, 2010, all the father-of-the-bride wants to do is put one foot in front of the other and glide down that aisle like a Super Hero.

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