lickypickystickyfree:

Skype props up tenuous long distance relationships, allows chats with family and pals in other countries, and supports the occasional fun video chat. But on this one day, it let a mother watch her daughter’s wedding dance before she died.

Photographer Andrea Boettcher had a difficult job. The mother of the bride was terminally ill with cancer. The wife-to-be, Ashley Broering was originally planning to elope, unable to cope with the strains of her mother’s imminent death and plan a wedding. But when doctors told Ashley her mother had only days to live, she went other direction—she wanted everyone in her life in one place for her wedding day.

But what about her bedridden mom?

Andrea recounts a beautiful, and beautifully 21st century solution:

On the wedding day I showed up and saw the laptop in the ceremony venue, I was told [Ashley’s mother] was definitely not going to make it to the wedding but they were working on getting Skype set up for the ceremony. They did get it set up by the time Ashley walked down the aisle and and she witnessed the entire ceremony. It was beautiful and emotional and Ashley and [husband] Beau stopped and said a few words to her during the whole thing. After the ceremony they set the laptop up in the reception hall and people stopped by to chat and talk with her, she got to witness everything and it was amazing and sad all at the same time. A few weeks after the wedding Patty passed away but I know Ashley is so glad that because of technology she was able to share the day with her mother.

(via lickystickypickywe)