The mother-son dance of a wedding is a tradition near and dear to mothers’ hearts. It’s an emotional moment filled with joy and tears as you send your child out into the world. This dance is special for every mother— but for a woman named Amy Winn, it was more meaningful than most.
Amy had been experiencing health issues for the past 20 years. When she was 31, doctors had diagnosed her with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), but her health problems only got worse from there.
MS is an autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system, i.e. the spinal cord and brain. When a person has an autoimmune disease, their immune system, which is meant to attack bacteria and viruses, starts attacking their own body, the MS Society of Canada explained. In the case of MS, the fatty layer around nerve cells (called myelin) is damaged, which ultimately results in damage and inflammation.
Because MS is progressive, Amy soon found herself confined to a wheelchair, unable to do even the most basic daily tasks.
The reason why people get MS is still unknown; however, for afflicted people like Amy, it results in symptoms such as extreme fatigue, lack of coordination, weakness, tingling, impaired sensation, vision problem, cognitive impairment, mood changes, and more. Researchers are currently zoning in on ways to treat and prevent it— but for many sufferers, it remains an uphill battle.
Around this time, Amy’s son Stephen was planning to get married to his (now, wife) Cassie— but he was unsure how to go about the traditional mother-son dance.
“My husband and I spent weeks trying to figure out how we could make the mother-son dance work with Amy,” Cassie told TODAY.
“The night of the rehearsal dinner, we still hadn’t decided on what we were going to do.”
By the night of the wedding, unbeknownst to his mother, Stephen had come up with a plan.
“Stephen pulled me aside and said, ‘I’m gonna pick her up so she can really dance with me.'”
“‘Do not tell anyone. I want it to be a surprise.'”
Luckily for us, the emotional clip was captured on film and uploaded online, where it has since gone viral. Cassie later told TODAY, “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
In the emotional video, you see Stephen slowly bend down and pick up his mother, pure joy and love evident on his face.
The crowd cheers in the background, as Stephen whispers a few words in his mother’s ear. Amy looks completely blissful, the perfect picture of maternal pride.
It’s hard to describe the emotions that come out when viewing the video. Trust me when I tell you, the tears come quick and they come hard.
The unabashed joy on Amy and Stephen’s faces, and the strength of his mother shown— combine these two elements with the idea of having raised your child and sending them off into the world (with a beautiful ballad, at that)… It becomes hard to keep the emotions back.
Since being uploaded to YouTube, Amy and Stephen’s father-son dance has been viewed more than 325,000 times.
As mentioned, the emotions portrayed are palpable, and many viewers comment on the emotional beauty of the scene.
“that was beautiful”
“So beautiful and touching. I can’t imagine the strength it took for her to stand and dance like that, but love conquers all.”
“Even as a total stranger this is so touching that I’m crying in front of the computer now. Beautiful.”
See it, for yourself, below.
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