A woman split social media after announcing that she decided to celebrate her wedding anniversary-despite the fact that a child died at her wedding reception.
The bride said the disaster occurred during her wedding in 2019, when the young daughter of a wedding guest slipped away from the party and drowned in a nearby lake.
But when she recently posted a Facebook post to congratulate her husband on her first wedding anniversary, she was met with disapproval from the mourning mother of the little girl.
Friends and relatives have also slammed the unnamed bride for “celebrating the tragedy.”
Posting on Reddit, the woman shared her controversial storey and defended her right to celebrate the anniversary of her wedding.
“My husband and I had our wedding last year,” she explained.
“The venue was beautiful and bordered a lake. Unfortunately, during the reception, one of the young children snuck away from their parents and decided to go for a swim, despite not being able to.
“This was tragic and devastating and obviously cut the day short.
“We haven’t really spoken to the parents since then, as we weren’t close to them aside from seeing them on holidays, which haven’t happened this year.
“We are still Facebook friends though. When our first anniversary came, I made a post celebrating our anniversary with a few wedding photos.”
But while the woman said she “didn’t think anything about the post, she quickly came under fire because she was insensitive.
“I woke up to 30 comments and 15 missed calls. The top comment was from the mother of the child, who was outraged about it,” she said.
“She wrote a very long comment about how my post was disrespectful of the tragedy that had happened that day and how dare I post that and not mention her child (and of course talking to her first).
“30 comments later, and it was clear that the entire family had clearly started to take sides in a battle I didn’t realise I created.
“As of today, we’re at 150 comments. My friends and my parents are involved too.”
Although the woman said she would make the post private later, it didn’t stop the friction with her family and friends.
“Half of his family is screaming for me to take it down, apologise to the parents, and show more respect, possibly by even celebrating our anniversary on a different day,” she said.
“Some of the family think that we should still be able to celebrate our anniversary on the actual day, but just keep it offline to ‘keep the peace’.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong with my post, and I feel like we should be allowed to celebrate our anniversary just like anyone else. I’m not celebrating the tragedy, I’m celebrating my wedding.”
Reddit users were divided on the situation of the woman, but many felt she should display more compassion.
“For crying out loud, take the post down,” said one. “On one hand is a family with a dead child facing the one year anniversary of their loss. Unimaginable pain.
“On the other hand is your need to have people comment on how pretty your wedding was and tell you happy anniversary.
“Their pain far outweighs your needs for likes.
“Of course you can celebrate your anniversary all you want. Just not visible to these people who have a dead child!”
But the others were in agreement with the bride.
“My birthday is September 11th, does that mean I can’t celebrate it? “One said.