“I was already nervous enough anyway so hearing that on my wedding day completely broke me.”
This was the tear-jerking moment a groom got the surprise of his life from his non-verbal daughter on his wedding day and it’s sure to melt your heart.
When Kevin Lynch tied the knot with his long-term partner Rachael, their daughter Hope stole the show.
Both Hope, aged 7, and her 6-year-old sister, Harper, are autistic and non-verbal, so the very last thing Kevin expected to hear on his big day was the sound of their voices.
But as Rachael walked down the aisle of St Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry on January 24 this year, she had a big surprise up her sleeve for her future husband, as well as their families and friends.
The couple, both aged 30, are also parents to Hayden, aged 4, and have been together for nine years. They got engaged in 2025 at Disneyland Paris.
In the lead up to the wedding, Rachael had been working hard behind the scenes to make the dream a reality, as Kevin, head chef in Da Vinci’s hotel in Derry, told Belfast Live: “It still gets me even now. The girls are both non-verbal but about six weeks before the wedding Rachael got them to point to pictures and say the word.
“She then mashed together these wee videos of the recordings so it was different clips of them saying the word to make it sound like a full sentence. It was Hope doing the speaking but they both still couldn’t say a full sentence and if they do speak, it’s only be one or two words. So when Rachael got them to do that she absolutely nailed it on the spot for me.
“Hope is so special to me. She was born at 25 weeks and weighed just 1lb 2oz. We were told she had an 80% chance of brain damage and that her odds of survival were very slim. She spent a long time in ICU and it was likely she would not make it. So for her to be able to speak to me on my wedding day seven years later was the best feeling in the world.”
Kevin added: “Most parents always long for those kind of moments so I think that’s what got me so bad. I was already nervous enough anyway so hearing that on my wedding day completely broke me.
“Also having my grandparent (Caroline McCusker) also playing the violin at the same time was also amazing so yes I cried! I think half of the half of the church was crying behind me too so I wasn’t the only one. Rachael thank you for making one of the most important days even more special.”
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