Wedding gown survives Harvey’s flood
“The only thing left was the dress.” “It was a sign that, of all this turmoil, that was the one thing that was supposed to make it,” —Stephanie Hoekstra, who is engaged to firefighter Kyle Parry
LUMBERTON, Texas—As the waters were rising, Kyle Parry didn’t have time to think about his home, or his wedding in 13 days. The Lumberton firefighter, 35, was scrambling from house to house in a boat in torrential rain, banging on windows to get people out as the floodwaters rose.
It was Monday. Harvey, the storm that seemed to never end, was supposed to return the next day and hit this town, north of Beaumont, hard. Parry’s house hadn’t flooded before, so he figured it would be fine.
But soon he started receiving rescue calls in his neighborhood.
Between calls, he stopped by his house. The water had risen to his door, but not yet invaded.
He grabbed his dogs, Fiona and Maggie, and Maggie’s six puppies who were born three weeks ago.
He hadn’t entered his spare bedroom in two weeks, since his fiancee told him not to see her wedding dress there. Now, he grabbed the white dress from its hanger and balled it up without looking at it, then placed it on the top shelf of the closet.
He knew how long his fiancee had looked for that dress, scouring websites and stores for the perfect style and fit.
He hoped it would be safe.
Parry and his fiancee, Stephanie Hoekstra, 33, knew each other in high school in Chatham-Kent, Ontario in Canada. But they wouldn’t start dating until years later.
Parry was raised on a farm there, where his family grew corn, wheat and soybeans. He ended up in Lumberton in 2013, after he decided he needed to get away. He followed his best friend, who had landed in the small town as a firefighter and loved it.
A year ago, Parry and Hoekstra ran into each other at a bar when he was visiting home for nine days. They started dating and talking on the phone.
Within a month, he proposed to her on a trip to a Louisiana plantation. He was sure she was his match.
“How does anybody know?” he said. “You just do.”
They set a wedding date of Sept. 10 in Galveston.
By Thursday, the town of Lumberton had been swallowed by water. Parry was swamped with work, trying to evacuate people from their homes in flooded areas. Finally, he had a chance to go check on his house.
Filming it on Facebook Live, he walked through his home in chest-deep water.
He’d lost everything. His couches, table and chairs floated in brown water.
“This would be where all the wedding supplies were,” he said in the video, panning across the linens, table centerpieces and decorations he and his fiancee had bought, now bobbing in water.
He opened the closet door to a flurry of white lace and tulle—the dress was miraculously still dry, but hanging inches from the water’s surface.
“I’m sorry Steph, but I have to look,” he said, before cutting off the video.
Back at the station, Parry brought the ball of white lace to a table. His eyes were tearing up.
“The only thing left was the dress,” he told his fellow firefighters and paramedics.
Joyce Brown, the office manager who’s the unofficial department mom, put her arms around Parry.
“We can turn this into a wedding chapel in two days,” said Beckie Kelley, a department administrator. “Don’t turn the wedding off.”
But Parry and his fiancee decided to postpone the date.
Still, Parry’s fiancee was thrilled to hear the dress she’d long searched for was salvaged.
“It was a sign that, of all this turmoil, that was the one thing that was supposed to make it,” Hoekstra said Friday.
Parry still hasn’t seen what the dress looks like unfurled. At this point, he doesn’t know when he’ll see it—they haven’t set another date yet—but he knows he’s excited for that day once it comes.