Grandmother, 94, serves as flower girl in granddaughter's wedding
At Laura VanPelt's wedding this past weekend, the flower girl stealing the show from the bride wasn't an adorable toddler, but rather her 94-year-old grandmother.
Helen Kavanagh walked down the aisle with a basket of petals and a lace-covered cane, smiling as she made her way to the altar. "When I tell people I was the flower girl, it's quite a surprise," the Minnesota resident told The Grand Rapids Press, adding that some people don't believe her. She also thought her granddaughter was kidding when she brought up being the flower girl. "When she asked me, I just laughed," Kavanagh said.
Kavanagh — a mother to nine, grandmother to 11, and great-grandmother to four (with one on the way) — says she is so busy "I never take a nap." She makes rosaries for her church, watches Detroit Tigers games on television, and is an expert baker, even making 200 truffles and several batches of dessert bars for the wedding.
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Kavanagh will turn 95 in November and has decades of memories, but says that serving as flower girl was "the biggest thrill I've ever had I think."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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