Bride goes ahead with wedding as tribute to fiance who died months earlier

An Indiana woman was determined to memorialize the man she was supposed to marry after he died in a tragic accident months earlier.

Jessica Padgett, 25, and Kendall Murphy, 27, got engaged during a tour of the University of Notre Dame football stadium, the BBC reported. They had planned a wedding for Sept. 29.

But Murphy, a volunteer firefighter, was responding to an accident scene last November when he was struck by a Dodge Ram pickup truck, according to local authorities.

So Padgett decided to go ahead with the wedding anyway, and visited Murphy’s gravesite on the planned wedding date — in the dress she had ordered earlier for the event. The wedding party, their families and other volunteer firefighters also attended.

Murphy’s mother asked wedding photographer Mandi Kneep to attend and take photos.

Kneep’s tear-jerking images show Padgett and family members surrounding Murphy’s grave; Padgett with his firefighter gear; and a photo of her with a superimposed image of him.

The photos have gone viral.

“Kendall was an amazing guy. A very loving, compassionate man. He would lend a shirt to anybody,” she told the BBC.