A 94-year-old grandfather is warming hearts after growing and saving an entire crop of colorful flowers for his only grandchild’s wedding day.
Newlywed Cassie Woodard, 33, works in insurance sales and lives in southern Indiana with her husband, Tyler Woodard, her daughter, and his daughter. A former carpenter, Ms. Woodard’s beloved grandpa, Leo, 94, lives on his own in nearby Jasper, Indiana.
“He’s very independent still, very healthy, doesn’t take any medicine whatsoever,” Ms. Woodard told The Epoch Times.
Ms. Woodard recalls that when she was a kid, and her grandma was alive, her grandparents had a really big garden.
“The cockscombs were always my favorite, and they were Grandma’s too, so when she passed away 10 years ago, it was kind of keeping her alive in Grandpa’s mind,” she said.
Ms. Woodard’s grandparents were German and had cockscomb seeds from Germany that they replanted every year. When planning her wedding, Ms. Woodard immediately thought of the plump fuchsia-colored flowers she'd helped tend and loved picking with her grandfather all her life.
“I said, ‘Is there any way we could use the flowers this year for my wedding and grow enough of them?’ He was extremely honored by it, so he did,” Ms. Woodard said. “He wouldn’t let anybody pick any—normally, people come and pick bouquets from the patch. But he didn’t let anybody pick anything until I picked up my wedding flowers.”
“[W]e had breakfast together and then just went out to the patches and picked them all,” Ms. Woodard said. “We took them straight over to the wedding venue and then started decorating.”
With the help of two good friends, her husband’s daughter and a friend, and her own daughter—who took a half-day off from school—Ms. Woodard arranged her grandpa’s flowers herself. She wrapped the colorful cockscombs in pampas grass and eucalyptus leaves and placed them in vases and centerpieces since she “really wanted them to be the star of the show.”
“Everyone loved them, and it made it so special because [Grandpa Leo] was there and got to see them,” she told The Epoch Times. “It was just so neat to see it all come together.”
The Woodards first met at a world championship horse show, where the groom’s mother was the state director.
They tied the knot in a small, intimate ceremony at church, with the wedding reception held at a horse-riding arena to facilitate their families’ favorite sport: barrel racing. The bride even rode a circuit in her wedding dress.
However, she was overjoyed to share her special day with her beloved grandfather.
“You know, I’m the only grandchild, so he’s just like my saving grace and I am his,” she said.
The two share a really close bond.
“Grandpa would always pick me up from school,” Ms. Woodard said. “I would even go on to different jobs with him, and actually, when I bought my house we built a table together, a really long 8-foot farmhouse table.”
Ms. Woodard has recently bought her grandfather an Apple Watch that he wears “religiously.” Through this, she’s been able to monitor his heart rate and safety and has also been calling him on it daily.
Apart from his caring granddaughter, Grandpa Leo, who is “well-known in the community,” also has neighbors looking out for his wellbeing.
Sharing more about his personality, Ms. Woodard said that he’s very grateful for any situation that he’s put in, adding that, “he’s been through a lot.”
“He was in the Korean War, he’s a veteran, he lost both of his children and his wife,” she said.
In sharing this moment from her life, Ms. Woodard hopes to tell the world about the precious relationship she shares with her grandpa, and in doing so she'd also like to shine a light on the importance of family.
