Heart-wrenching photo shows bride's grandpa eating meal beside late wife's memorial during wedding
An image of a man eating alone next to his wife's memorial during his granddaughter's wedding could move you to tears.
Sahrah Elswick of West Virginia, shared the photo of her grandfather, Billy Gray, 71, onto Twitter July 7 -- one day after her wedding where the picture was taken.
"I couldn’t really imagine having a wedding without them there," Elswick told "Good Morning America" of her grandparents. "The people on the memorial were very important people in mine and my husband's [lives] and even if they couldn’t physically be there, we wanted them to be a part of it in some way."
Elswick said she made the memorial which included photos of loved ones she and her husband Zachery had lost.
Her grandmother, Barbara Gray, died May 2017. Barbara and Billy Gray were married for 45 years.
"Pawpaw sat and ate with mawmaw today at my wedding," Elswick captioned in her tweet, which garnered 177,000 likes.
More than 500 Twitter users reacted in the comments section, many of whom saying they were touched by the picture of Elswick's "pawpaw."
"I rarely reply in Twitter, but this is love," one wrote.
"They must have had a deep love [for] each other," said another. "All of us would be blessed to have the same."
Others said they have similar traditions in their families, where they pay homage to loved ones lost.
"My niece recently got married and not only did she lose her mother, but her grandmother [2 months] before," one woman wrote, sharing a photo of a memorial. "We honored them both with a front row seat."
Someone who apparently knows Elswick also commented on the touching image.
"Your wedding was beautiful and this was the sweetest thing I’ve ever witnessed. I’m glad we captured this moment and i’m sorry she couldn’t physically be there ..."
Elswick said she never thought her photo would get this much attention -- telling "GMA," "as for the attention I’m astonished to say the least."
