Weddings not only symbolize a life-long commitment between two partners, but they also mean a lot to the families involved. For that reason, the father-daughter and mother-son dances are particularly special.
That was especially true for Scooter Hightower, one Middle Tennessee resident, when he got married in October 2020. Hightower’s mother, who had ALS, a f-a-tal neurodegenerative disease for which there is no cure, had one final wish. She wanted to attend her son’s Arrington wedding before she passed. And luckily, Hightower’s mother got her wish.
In an emotional video that has touched millions of hearts around the world, we see Hightower as he picks his mother up out of her wheelchair and dances with her to the fitting song “Mother,” a song by local Tennessee artist Thomas Finchum.
The son holds her close while alone on the dance floor and surrounded by his wife-to-be and other wedding guests.
Hightower embraces his mother and sways to the music. Many of the wedding guests do begin to cry as Hightower fulfills his d/ying mother’s final wish.
Professionally filmed and edited by MNF Productions, the video has since gone viral with more than 2 million views and more than 1,000 supportive comments. The clip’s popularity has helped to raise awareness surrounding ALS while also warming viewers’ hearts.
Tragically, however, Hightower announced his mother’s p:assing a week after his wedding in October 2020. Before her diagnosis, Hightower’s mother was a paramedic for three decades in Tennessee, where she’ll be remembered by her community.
“I was wanting to do something really special for her because one of the things is when she was diagnosed with ALS, she was waiting for two things in her life to happen, before she wanted to go to the other side so to speak,” Hightower told local outlet FOX 17. “She was waiting for her granddaughter to be born, my niece, and she is going on six months now, seven months, and then she was waiting for our wedding. She wanted to be at our wedding.”
Around seven days before his big day, Hightower settled on a song: local artist Thomas Finchum’s track “Mothers.”
“It took me up until the Saturday before our wedding to pick out a song because it was just tough,” Hightower told the local news outlet. “I was trying to find that right song. I actually had to show my sister the song to be able to pick that one because I just couldn’t do it by myself.”
The video is beautiful. Hightower and his father gently help his mom out of her chair, and her son tenderly begins to dance with her. Later in the video, all of her children join in, surrounding their beloved mother as she tears up in her chair. Just one week later, she passed away.
“We had a last call for mom over the radio that went through the hospital. Everybody in the hospital heard it. We had a flyover from LifeFlight, MedEvac. You know, everybody knew her. She changed so many lives,” Hightower told FOX 17. “It’s incredible. I can’t even begin to scratch the surface on how many people she impacted in her life because she was impacting millions of people before I was even thought of.”
