LAGRANGE, Ohio — When Julie Norton was looking forward to her wedding, she was desperately trying to figure out how to have a special song have special meaning to her parents.
The song, "My Wish," by Rascal Flatts, flows beautifully, its melody providing the perfect compliment to a poetic lyric that speaks to hoping someone's dreams come true.
It was the perfect song for the father/daughter dance at Julie's wedding reception. A song she knew her parents, Scott and Christine Finkel, would never hear because they are deaf.
"In a lot of aspects of their life," Julie says, "they can't fully participate."
Julie knew they couldn't near the words or the music, but she wanted her parents to share the meaning of the song at her wedding.
"What's the point of a father/daughter dance," she asks, "if they can't understand the meaning behind it?"
And then, she had an ingenious idea. She told her parents it would be a surprise.
At her wedding reception, as the song started to play, suddenly Julie appeared on a big video screen.
As the song began with the line, "I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow," Scott and Christine could understand the words.
That's because Julie appeared on that screen in a prerecorded video, using sign language so her parents could follow along.
Her wedding video shows her father beaming as he realizes what is happening. "Tears," he says, "wow."
Julie's mom says, " I saw the video (and thought), "oh, that's the surprise."
Interpreting for her Dad, Julie adds, "he held his tears until the end (of the song), and when he turned around, he gave me a big hug, and he looked around, and everyone was crying."
The chorus to the song ends with the lyric:
"I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same thing too.
Yeah, this is my wish."
"I just felt it was very fitting," Julie says, "because I know that's what they always wanted for me - for all my dreams to come true."
