CV NEWS FEED // A South Carolina father drove, walked, and hitchhiked his way through Hurricane Helene to make it to his daughter’s wedding in Tennessee.
David Jones told 10 News, “I just did what any dad would do.”
His daughter Elizabeth (Jones) Marquez reflected, “It’s transformed my faith to know what an earthly father would do, how much more love a heavenly Father has for us. So it’s just been eye-opening for me, and the love that my father has for me and the love that our Heavenly Father has for us.”
Jones made it in enough time to walk his daughter down the aisle.
“We’re very alike, and so it meant the world that [we] could be side by side on that day,” Marquez said.
Jones’s daughter was getting married in Johnson City, TN, which is about a two-hour drive from his home in South Carolina. He drove out on the night of September 27, but at 2 a.m. he came across a bridge in Eastern Tennessee that was completely demolished.
Jones, a marathon runner, decided he could walk the remaining 27 miles.
After Jones fell up to his waist in sand, lost his shoe, and climbed over roots, he came across state troopers.
When the troopers encouraged Jones to turn around, he replied, “My daughter’s getting married at 11:00, and I’m going to be there to walk her down the aisle.”
He added, “I grabbed a reflector as I passed by and I thought, you know, I got my flashlight on my cell phone and this, so hopefully people will see me.”
Jones walked for another 17 miles. 10 News reports that he then “hitched a ride from a trooper and a passerby for the remaining 10 miles, finally arriving at the church at 7:30 a.m.,” making it in plenty of time before the wedding.
At the reception, Jones gave his daughter and her new husband the reflector he used during his journey. Jones explained, “I presented the reflector to them at the reception and just said, ‘Let this be a remembrance for you whenever you see it to be a protector for each other, especially in your darkest hours, because that’s when you need it the most, and to continue to be a reflection of God.”