Dad dies after dancing with daughter at wedding

What should have been a bride’s happiest day ended in tragedy when her father died moments after dancing with her at her wedding.

Detective Tim Buchanan, a long time employee with the York County Sheriff’s Office, unexpectedly passed away over the weekend, according to Sheriff Bruce Bryant.

Buchanan’s wife, Jeni, posted a message on Facebook saying he died while the family was on a trip to Costa Rica for their daughter’s wedding.

“You never know when the last time will be the last time,” she posted Monday morning. “Tim came into my life at a time when I was broken to the core and held me up and built me into a strong person. Over the years we raised four amazing children, cared for my little brothers when they needed us the most and had even had the honor of a beautiful grandchild.”

According to a GoFundMe account set up for the family, Buchanan had a heart attack during the wedding – just after the father-daughter dance – and he didn’t survive. The wedding was on Saturday.

“He was the most beautiful soul I have ever known and I will never be the same without him,” Jeni Buchanan’s post continued. “I know he loved me and our family.”

The message was posted with a photo of the couple sneaking a kiss at the bottom of the stairs during the wedding.

“I am so very grateful for this image of us that our dear friends Kelly Rae Stewart and her husband snuck during our daughter’s wedding yesterday,” she wrote. “Little did I know just a few hours later we would lose him.”

Jeni Buchanan was still in Costa Rica Monday morning and asked her family and friends for prayers.

“For now, just pray,” she asked. “He was always the one to make us feel better when things went wrong and so we need all the prayers we can get.”

Photographer Katie Donnelly met the couple when she shot photos of their vow renewals last year in Paris.

“If you had ever met Tim, you would know how much of a loss this is. He was kind, warm, and loving. A good person,” she said. “In those hours I spent with the two of them, it was evident the kind of people Tim and Jeni are and the kind of love they shared.”

Jeni Buchanan is a wedding photographer herself and the GoFundMe page says “understandably, she will need some time away from that.”

Agencies/Canadajournal