Just 10 months before his wedding day, volunteer firefighter Kendall James Murphy was struck and killed by an intoxicated driver while responding to an emergency call. On Setpember 29, the day the couple was supposed to exchange their vows, Jessica Padgett visited her fiancé’s grave in her wedding gown.
Murphy was struck while retrieving gear from his car. The other driver, another firefighter responding to the same emergency, was apparently intoxicated and distracted by his cell phone at the time of the crash.
It was Murphy’s mother who contacted photographer Mandi Knepp, hoping that the wedding ritual would aid in Padgett’s grieving process. Set in Glendale, Indiana (the same location where the couple took their engagement photos), the experience was, Pdgett says, “an emotional rollercoaster.”
Padgett said, “In the end, I’m glad I did it, though, because now I can look back no those memories that Mandi took, and the ways I got to honor Kendall and be with Kendall and see all the support that I had that day.”
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The last words of a dying bride
And today we celebrate...