Veteran fulfills last wish, walks daughter down the aisle

He’d made it through a year in Vietnam, 35 years of marriage and three children, but with just one month to go before his daughter’s Feb. 6 wedding, it was becoming clear Eldon Frye wasn’t going to make it down the aisle with her.


It had always been an important milestone to both of them, his daughter said. Teah Frye Moncada recalls all the times they’d talked about it, from when she was a little girl through all the ball games they’d attended and the shared hunting and fishing trips in western North Dakota.

“I’m his baby girl. I’m his only girl,” she said. “It’s always been our dream.”

In October, when Eldon was hospitalized with lung cancer, he sat his daughter’s boyfriend of a year and a half on his hospital bed, looked him in the eye, and told him he had one wish: He wanted to walk Teah down the aisle.