MERCERSBURG, Pa. (WSVN) — The young couple had been looking forward to their senior prom. But when Carter Brown died in a car crash just a month beforehand, his devastated girlfriend said she didn’t want to go without him.
That’s when Carter’s father stepped in.
Robert Brown asked Kaylee Suders if he could accompany her to the prom, not wanting her to miss out on a high school tradition.
“I told her, ‘I’m not Carter, but maybe I’m the next best thing,'” he said.
“I didn’t have to think about it,” Kaylee told the Centre Daily Times. “I definitely said ‘yes.’ It was so great of him to ask me.”
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“It meant a lot that he kind of stepped up and took the role, because it was my senior prom and I didn’t want to go any more,” she added.
Robert said he did it because knew his son would have wanted his girlfriend to attend.
“My son was a sweet, caring kid, and Kaylee is very sweet too, and she is a part of our family,” he said. “When the passing topic of prom came up, I kept thinking my son would want her to go. That prompted me to get the ball rolling.”
When the big day rolled around, the two families gathered for a quick photo shoot. The two then took Carter’s car and went to dinner at TGI Fridays, where the young couple had their first date.
“I loved dressing up and taking pictures and dancing. I know it would have made Carter happy that I still went, and I know he’s smiling ear to ear at the fact I went with his dad,” Kaylee told Fox News, saying everyone in attendance thought it was “amazing” that he accompanied her to the dance.
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