Dad of the Year goes to...
This week, I am 0-2 for crying while writing. First, it was a heartfelt salute from a veteran grandfather to his enlisted granddaughter. Now, it's this story of a father making sure he could walk his daughter down the aisle despite the torrential flooding and damage caused by Hurricane Helene.
Yesterday, WJHL ran a story detailing a father who went the extra mile (literally) to be there on his daughter's special day. With her wedding taking place days after Hurricane Helene's wrath hit land, his quick two-hour drive from South Carolina turned into a trip from hell to get to Johnson City, Tennessee.
As David Jones began his drive toward the cities that were devastatingly impacted, his two-hour drive turned into seven hours in the car and then five and a half hours on foot to reach the final destination. When Jones reached Erwin, Tennessee, state troopers stopped him to inform him that roads were not drivable moving forward and he could not continue. But rather than turning around, he got out of his vehicle and began the rest of his journey on foot.
"I said, 'You have to understand my daughter's getting married at eleven o'clock this morning, and I'm going to be there to walk her down the aisle.'"
After estimating Johnson City was only about thirty miles away, the former marathon runner decided to walk for the remainder of the trip. However, walking would be a loose term as he crawled and climbed over mounds of debris, relying solely on the light from his iPhone to guide him once it hit nightfall.
"I had to climb six or seven-foot-tall piles of debris, old fences, and huge trees and tangled mess."
At one point, he wasn't sure if he would survive the trek, as Jones recalls being stuck in the mud. While that is scary enough, the situation worsened when a backhoe was operating near him, and the driver did not see or hear his cries. Jones worried the machinery would hit him as he ducked its passes. Thankfully, he freed himself from the mud and continued on his way.
Upon safely arriving in Johnson City, his daughter had no idea the lengths her father went through to ensure he was there on her special day.
"That's so emotionally moving that my dad loves me that much that he would come and go through all of that to get through my wedding."
As a wedding gift, he gave his daughter and her groom the reflector stake he used throughout his trek so he would not be hit by cars, passing it along to the newlyweds as a reminder to be a good reflection of each other.
While David Jones believes that any father would go to those lengths to walk their daughter down the aisle, I'm not convinced all fathers would risk their lives as he did.
This man hands down won Dad of the Year with this heroic act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX1hrijxFE8
