Country singer Tim McGraw helped make a young father’s wish become a reality after he was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma and had the realization he may not be around for the day his little girls walk down the aisle.
The 55-year-old country star thanked fans and everyone who alerted him to a video posted in February from Michael Hugo, 37, who had been diagnosed the year prior with brain cancer.
“Thanks to everyone who shared Mike Hugo’s video on social media and tagged me in the comments,” the country singer wrote.
“So glad we were able to actually get together in person, meet this amazing family, and make it happen!” he added along with clips showing the singer meeting Hugo and his family.
“Mike is saving the videos for his daughters’ future weddings … what a special thing to be a part of,” McGraw continued.
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In the original clip, Hugo talked about how he would “fight hard” to be present the day his daughters, now 6 and 7 years old, respectively, get married, while noting that the odds of that happening were not good.
“I know the statistics,” the father explained. “The statistics for glioblastoma are a median survival of 14 months; half the people are dead by 14 months. The five-year survival is four or five percent.”
He then asked if anyone had connections to get the video to people close to the “Don’t Take The Girl” hitmaker. His wish was to create a video of him and McGraw singing a duet of his song “My Little Girl” that could then be played the day his daughters get married.
Hugo talked about how he’s written letters to them with words of wisdom that they will read on their future birthdays, and got emotional as he discussed his dream of being there the day his daughters get married, something he acknowledged is “going to be tough.”
“I did the daddy-daughter dance in Wellington, and that was awesome,” Hugo said. “That kind of made me think, ‘Man, I want to dance with my kids at their wedding.'”