{"id":9783,"date":"2023-03-01T10:00:41","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T15:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=9783"},"modified":"2023-03-16T14:47:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T18:47:15","slug":"five-year-old-girl-asks-grandfather-to-father-daughter-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/03\/five-year-old-girl-asks-grandfather-to-father-daughter-dance.html","title":{"rendered":"Five-Year-Old Girl Asks Grandfather to Father-Daughter Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_9798\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9798\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/03\/austyn-woolverton2-grandpa-credit-TikTok-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9798\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/03\/austyn-woolverton2-grandpa-credit-TikTok-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"austyn woolverton\" width=\"768\" height=\"424\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9798\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kelsey Woolverton\/TikTok<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Five-year-old Austyn Woolverton and her grandfather, Steve Guenther, recently attended a father-daughter dance in Papillion, Nebraska, after the pair warmed the hearts of millions on social media. On the day of the father-daughter dance, Kelsey Woolverton, Austyn\u2019s mother, told Fox News Digital that Austyn woke up saying, \u201cThe dance is tonight! It\u2019s the dance day!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Woolverton said she did Austyn\u2019s hair for the highly anticipated event since Austyn and her grandfather went viral on TikTok. At the time, Woolverton showed footage of the heartwarming moment when Austyn asked her grandfather to join her for the daddy-daughter Valentine\u2019s Day event. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@kdub1220\/video\/7198032501447675178?lang=en\">The TikTok video<\/a> gained more than two million views.<\/p>\n<p>Since the original viral video, TikTok users asked for an update on the dance, which occurred in early February. In the original video, you can hear Austyn softly telling her grandfather, \u201cThere\u2019s a Valentine\u2019s dance. But we need our dad to go.\u201d Austyn decided to ask her grandpa to the dance since her father, Michael Woolverton, died after a drug overdose when Austyn was 18 months old. Austyn\u2019s mother said, \u201cShe really doesn\u2019t have memories of him, but from the very beginning, we have talked about him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt breaks my heart that Austyn will grow up without her dad,\u201d Guenther told Fox News Digital. \u201cI feel blessed that Austyn and I have this bond and I can be there for her when her dad can\u2019t,\u201d he added. Kelsey Woolverton said the memory of Austyn\u2019s dad lives on. \u201cHe was a fuller-than-life person. Full of joy [and] loved people,\u201d she said. \u201c[He] was never serious, almost to a fault,\u201d Woolverton said. After Austyn\u2019s father died, mother and daughter moved from Oklahoma back to Nebraska. When Kelsey and Austyn moved back in with her parents, Woolverton says that&#8217;s when Austyn and her grandfather got closer.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@kdub1220\/video\/7189440842690596139\" data-video-id=\"7189440842690596139\">\n<section><a title=\"@kdub1220\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@kdub1220?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@kdub1220<\/a>I\u2019m not crying\u2026.<a title=\"\u266c Surrender - Natalie Taylor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/Surrender-6777935271007619074?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u266c Surrender &#8211; Natalie Taylor<\/a><\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Woolverton said as the dance drew near, she wanted her daughter to find normalcy in attending without being reminded that her father couldn\u2019t be there. She shared, \u201cIn a special moment like this, I don\u2019t want to take anything away from her little happiness.\u201d Of her TikTok going viral, Woolverton said, \u201cMy intention\u00a0in posting it\u00a0was never to bring light to daddy-daughter dances. I think inclusivity is so hard because how far do you go without taking it away from people who do have dads?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Woolverton said that with Austyn\u2019s father gone, the dance was an opportunity for Austyn to find other ways to feel included. \u201cThere is no reason [kids] need to miss out on things like this just because it\u2019s called a \u2018daddy-daughter dance,\u2019\u201d Woolverton commented. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0a brave thing\u00a0to do\u2026 It\u2019s not always the easiest,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>As for the event, Woolverton said that\u00a0Austyn and her grandpa\u00a0were full of smiles. Austyn\u2019s mother says the two \u201chad a great time.\u201d Losing a husband and father at a young age can\u2019t be easy. Luckily, Kelsey and Austyn had Austyn\u2019s grandfather, who could step in and serve as a father figure for Austyn. Though Austyn may not have many memories of her father, she can hold on to the memories she made with her grandfather at the Valentine\u2019s Day daddy-daughter dance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five-year-old Austyn Woolverton and her grandfather, Steve Guenther, recently attended a father-daughter dance in Papillion, Nebraska, after the pair warmed the hearts of millions on social media. On the day of the father-daughter dance, Kelsey Woolverton, Austyn\u2019s mother, told Fox News Digital that Austyn woke up saying, \u201cThe dance is tonight! It\u2019s the dance day!\u201d&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":9798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Five-Year-Old Girl Asks Grandfather to Father-Daughter Dance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Five-year-old Austyn Woolverton lost her father when she was 18 months old. 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