While a terminally ill five-year-old girl got the wedding of her dreams over the weekend and couldn't stop smiling the whole time, the circumstances that she married in broke millions of hearts worldwide. Eileidh Paterson, suffering from childhood cancer neuroblastoma, married her best friend Harrison Grier, aged six.
Eileidh has said that marrying Harrison was the most important thing she had to do before she died. And hundreds of well-wishers travelled to the Aberdeen Conference Centre in Scotland over the weekend to join the little ones in the fun.
"Harrison had never been to a wedding before, so this was all new to him," his father Billy Grier told the Sun. "But it was a beautiful ceremony and he enjoyed every minute. He was quite excited to do it. Ever since he met Eileidh, they have been inseparable. I think he knew what was going on. He certainly knew how important it was to her and wanted to do whatever he could for her."
Eileidh was walked into the room by her brother Callum while "When you wish upon a star" from the film Pinocchio played in the background. Zara Grant of children's entertainment firm Love Rara then read out fairytale version of Eileidh's life story, which was written by the five-year-old's mother, Gail Paterson. Gail said that little Eileidh was "a princess who would stop at nothing to survive," and labelled her cancer as an "evil beast."
Eileidh's sister then read a poem after which the little one and Harrison were pronounced "best friends forever." Speaking about Eileidh's illness, Gail said that she had undergone blood transfusion the previous day and was exhausted, but she enjoyed the "wedding day."
"She was just extremely drained, but she was like a different girl during the ceremony," Gail explained. "The spectacle of it really perked her up, she was in her absolute element getting to play with other kids and have fun. These are going to be lasting memories."
