Little Girl, 5, Has No Date to Father-Daughter Dance — and Then Gets Sweet Surprise (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Allie with her granddad Dennis.Photo:Courtesy of singlemomsquared

Courtesy of singlemomsquared

One little girl from southeast Louisiana had a very special date to her father-daughter dance: her grandfather.

Dennis asks, “What is Allie wearing to the father-daughter dance Friday night?” Lindsey replies, “I didn’t know she was going?” And Dennis responds simply: “Well sure, Grandad is bringing her.”

The video is captioned, “She has everything she needs and more.”

Allie and her granddad Dennis alongside Allie’s Uncle Jeff and cousin Andi.Courtesy of singlemomsquared

The now-viral video includes clips of the pair meeting before the dance. In the video, Dennis bows to his granddaughter, who was 5 years old at the time of filming. The little girl is all dressed up in a navy blue and pink dress with a tiara, and commenters were quick to point out how Dennis matched his jacket and tie to her look. Lindsey shares that Allie “wanted to look like a princess going to the ball, because she said Grandad is her prince.”

“She was so excited when he bowed!” she adds.

When Linsdey heard about the father-daughter dance, she initially felt emotional. “I truly wanted my daughter to have the kind of dad that I had growing up,” she tells PEOPLE. “I just made plans to do something special with Allie that night instead: a mommy-daughter date night."

Allie and her grandad Dennis.Courtesy of singlemomsquared

That’s when her father texted her. “I was [confused at first], and then I just broke down sobbing,” she says. “It was [in] that moment that I realized she didn’t have the dad that I wanted her to have, but she did have mine, and that’s so much better.”

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Dennis wasn’t the only man in Lindsey’s family to reach out about the dance. “Right after I got that message from my dad, I got a text from my brother asking if he could take Allie, too. They hadn’t even spoken to each other about it. My brother just stepped up to offer, which isn’t surprising since we both grew up with a dad like ours.”

As for Allie, “She was beyond excited,” Lindsey says. “I was honestly worried about it because all of her friends would be there with their ‘real dads’ and she would have Grandad, but she was easily the most excited girl there.”

Lindsey shares with PEOPLE that, following a tumultuous split from Allie’s biological dad, her father was there to help her in any way he could. And his kindness doesn’t just extend to his family — he is known to go above and beyond to help strangers in need. Lindsey shared of Dennis, “My dad is persistent when it comes to ‘extending a helping hand.’ If he extends it, he is doing it with his whole heart.”

source: people.com