Eight days before my wedding, my father passed away peacefully during his sleep. I was at work when the hospital called me. They told me there was nothing more they could do. I sat down on the corridor floor, utterly numb, not knowing how to react. My mum had died years ago, and Dad was all I had left. The lady who looked after his house found him she had a spare key.
I was an only child, spoiled rotten by Dad, his soft-hearted boy. We spoke every day. He would ring me each morning to check if I’d had breakfast, and again at night to make sure Id made it home safely.
The days that followed were nothing but chaos the wake, the funeral, people visiting to offer condolences. I barely slept, maybe two hours a night. I kept glancing at my phone, as if I might get one last message from him to reply to. My fiancée was with me that first day, but then began to distance herself, as if the grief was too much for her to be around.
Three days after the funeral, she texted: We need to talk about the wedding. I replied that I wasnt well, that my mind couldnt handle it. She insisted. We met that afternoon, and she came straight out with it: What are we going to do? Everythings paid for the venue, the band, the dress, the catering. We cant just lose all that money.
I stared at her in disbelief. I said, Ive just buried my father. Im in mourning I cant celebrate, dance or make toasts. She responded, I understand your grief, but we need to be practical. We cant just throw the money away.
At that moment, I stood up and asked her to settle up. I requested she tell me what she and her family contributed, and what I had spent. I withdrew my savings I’d put aside for our future home, and repaid her every last pound. Handing her the envelope, I said, Thats it. I cant marry someone who cares more about a party than my heartbreak at the worst moment of my life.
She was silent. Then she started crying, saying I was overreacting, acting out of anger and that Id regret it. I replied, I havent lost some distant relation Ive lost my dad, my only parent. If you cant see that, youre not the person I want to build a family with.
We cancelled everything. We let our guests know there would be no wedding. Most understood, though some assumed we were just postponing. Others told me I was mad, that I could have married now and grieved later. But I just couldnt. The thought of smiling for photos or raising a toast was impossible.
Time passed. I went through my own healing. I sold Dads car, sorted his home, closed that chapter. Recently, I found out shes married to someone else now just a year later. I saw the photos online: white dress, grand celebration, lots of smiles, everyone raising their glasses.
Sometimes I wonder if I was too harsh, if I shouldve thought harder, but then I remember that day sitting across from her, as she talked about money while I was falling apart and I know I did the right thing.
