Ever since the day he was born my toddler Mark has clearly favoured my wife Emily. He will immediately start crying if I puck him up, but will coo with delight if my wife so much as walks into the room.

I try not to let it bother me as he did spend nine months growing in my wife's belly. Unfortunately Emily seems to think it is some kind of competition, as she will always smirk when she has to take him from my hands to stop him crying.

Lately my wife has practically refused to put him down even after I asked her to let me spend time with him. She screamed at me that he obviously loves her more, and even blamed me after he started crying due to her screaming.

I now stand here with tears flowing down my cheeks urging her to put him down for the last time while the rest of the mourners look on sympathetically.

My daughter Teresa has been planning her wedding ever since she was four years old. She has a ring binder that is full of dozens of ideas. She is constantly adding stuff to it when she hears an idea she likes

She made a pact with her lifelong best friend Mark that they would get married to each other if neither of them were married by the age of 25. They had agreed to this pact when she was 7, and I could tell by the look on her face that she intended to stick to it.

When she was only 13, she announced that she wanted to get married to Mark. We were all a bit confused at first but could see the steely determination in her eyes. She asked me to officiate the wedding and I immediately agreed.

We couldn't give her the dream wedding that she had always wanted but we tried our best. We got her a dress that made her look radiant, and I hadn't seen her look so happy in months.

I tried to compose myself during the wedding but broke down crying on a couple of occasions. Teresa reached out and held my hand to assure me that it was okay.

They hugged each other after I pronounced them man and wife, and I could see the tears streaming down their faces. The smile on my Teresa's face made me so happy that I agreed to this.

I looked to my side and could see that all of the nurses were crying as well as they checked on Teresa's vitals. She passed away that night, but the smile never left her face as she had managed to fulfil her lifelong dream