Tale of the veil

While a bride’s wedding dress is the central piece of their big day, the friends of Meredith Haga Fox will cherish their veil the most.

As a bright and energetic teenager, Fox was diagnosed with kidney disease during her junior year of high school. Though she was placed on dialysis, her life relied on finding a kidney donor. She didn’t have to wait long as her own stepfather, Bruce Blessing of Bristol, Virginia was a match and jumped at the chance to donate one of his kidneys.

After gaining a new lease on life, Fox was determined to live each day to the fullest. She attended Sweet Briar College, where she made some of her closest friends, who soon felt like family. Her experience with kidney disease inspired Fox to share her story across the nation and even started a career as an organ recovery coordinator in Tennessee. She also married, but soon thereafter become ill.

Fox was only 25 years old when she died in 2018, but the impact she had on her friends and family was larger than life.

“She was a very, very impressive person and it was admirable to see how much she accomplished from the moment she got a second chance,” Fox’s college roommate, Lydia Fleck, said.

“She was always giving to others through the work she did and also through her insanely outgoing personality,” said Fox’s maid of honor Ellie Patterson, of Henrico.

Blessing decided to start The Meredith Haga Foundation to honor his stepdaughter and continue her passion and legacy of helping others. The foundation provides financial aid for living donors and works to educate individuals about organ donation. So far, it has raised $31,000 since 2020 and officially assisted one living organ donor with many more to come, according to Fox’s close friend Hallsey Van Dongen.

But while Fox’s friends were able to celebrate her wedding, getting married without honoring her didn’t feel right, which is when the passing of the veil started.

“When Meredith was going through her dress shopping experience she loved her dress, but she was obsessed with the veil. It was beautiful and she wore it with such grace,” Van Dongen said. “So, after she passed, the veil was one piece we thought would be a good way of bringing her into our weddings.”

Patterson was the first to wear the veil, but she also took extra steps including pictures and a painting of Meredith as decoration to make sure she was included throughout the wedding.

“As the veil was resting on my shoulders it almost felt like she was there with me with her hands on my shoulders,” Patterson said. “That was so special just feeling her that day, and then I look back at those pictures and every time I look at the veil like I just instantly it's just like all the memories come flooding back.”

Van Dongen was next to wear the veil and acknowledged it was one of the most meaningful parts of her wedding.

“When I put the veil on for the first time I felt such joy but also such sorrow, knowing that she was not going to be there,” Van Dongen said. “But in a way, it just brought me so much comfort knowing that I got to bring this part of her with me.”

Fleck is the last of Fox’s friends to get married but she has already gotten a chance to try it on.

“Just being able to wear it during my dress appointment was a very blessed moment,” Fleck said. “It felt like she was there embracing me, telling me she was proud of me, and that everything was going to be okay.”