'There's miracles in everything': Dad fighting cancer escorts daughter for Homecoming
A teenager in Alabama was chosen as her high school's Homecoming queen, but it was her father who won every heart in the stadium as he escorted her in the midst of battling a debilitating form of cancer.
"I was holding him as tight as I could," said 17-year-old Sarakate Yancey. "Every ten steps, I would look over and I was like, 'Are you okay? Can you make it? Do I need to get somebody to come get you?'"
Her father, Brett Yancey, has Stage 4 metastatic esophageal cancer. He requires an oxygen tank and just days before, had experienced a seizure and leg paralysis. But when he found out Sarakate, his youngest daughter, had been nominated for Homecoming queen, he was determined to walk her across the football field for the ceremony — just like all the other dads.
"I wanted to prove to her that I was going to stand up for her and prove that I had the character to show that I was going to be her backbone," said Brett, 47. "During that moment, I was having to tell each leg, 'we'll take one foot in front of the other and walk.' And it was frustrating and scary."
As the announcer called Sarakate's name, she and her father walked the 50 yards together, from one side of the field to the other. Her mother, Carrie Yancey, was sitting on the bleachers with their two elder daughters, Savanna and Sydney, and says there was "not a dry eye in the stands."
Watch the momentous father-daughter walk in the video above.
"I could look from left to right, and people on both sides of me were just squalling," said Carrie, a school principal in Southside, Alabama. "That was really the prime moment of Homecoming; there was just really not a dry eye in the stands."
Since Brett was diagnosed about six years ago after having trouble swallowing, his family has had to work around a rigorous treatment schedule, traveling as far as Houston for medical care. He has a tumor in his lungs and also in his brachial plexus, a group of nerves in the shoulder, which can cause significant pain and loss of sensation and movement.
"As our girls have grown, we've missed a lot of events," said Carrie. "We've missed Proms, we've missed Homecomings, we've missed ball games, we've missed awards ceremonies ... This was an event that he really wanted to take part in with his daughter."
Her father was right by her side as Sarakate took home the title of Homecoming queen. But no crown could compare to the noble grace of the man standing next to her.
"It's important to see and for others to see that no matter what it looks like or how it is, that there's miracles in everything, whether they're tiny or whether they're large," said Sarakate. "There's good even in the midst of the bad."
Watch the full story below.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Watch dad battling cancer walk Homecoming queen daughter across field
