Laura Wiley gets HS graduation from Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital staff – Family photo

Her graduation from Boswell High School was only hours away—yet she was about to miss one of life’s most memorable moments.

Laura Wiley’s kidney had become infected and the illness soon progressed into severe sepsis, and she had to be admitted to the hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, on the night before her senior graduation.

The timing was terrible.

“I was saying, ‘Why couldn’t this have happened a week or two ago?” Laura recalled in an interview with WFAA-TV in Dallas.

As news about the teen missing out on a major milestone spread throughout the buildings at both the high school and the hospital, doctors, nurses, and school officials worked together to create their own graduation ceremony—right inside Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital.

Hospital staff hustled alongside Laura’s mom to decorate a lounge area with tablecloths and stars, and signs that said “Congrats Grad” and “Class of 2025.” Everywhere you looked, there was blue and gold, the school colors of Boswell High.

The space had been completely transformed. It was ready for a graduation—one that would totally take her by surprise.

Laura was told she could view the graduation on a livestream from her hospital bed, so she got dressed up in her cap and gown (complete with a Hello Kitty design on the top of her cap depicting the pink cat holding a diploma).

The 17-year-old watched as her classmates walked to the stage and then they announced her name.

Hospital staffers had gathered to form a reception line in the lounge, as Laura was pushed along in a wheelchair amid the sound of cheers and applause echoing all around her. (See the video below…)

The school’s assistant principal provided another surprise, after she’d driven to the hospital to present a diploma to Ms. Wiley, who rose from her chair to accept it.

“I was just completely surprised, especially when I saw my assistant principal there,” Laura told WFAA-TV News. “I just started sobbing.”

Afterward, she took photos with everyone, capturing all the same memories of a more traditional graduation. People filled her guest book with notes of congratulations and well-wishes for her future.

It wasn’t the graduation Laura was expecting, but she told the WFAA news reporter that, in the end, it was perfect.

“I think I would not have changed anything.”

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After her health issues were treated and Wiley was discharged one day later, she may have gained one more lesson on that last day of high school.

Life is unpredictable. But you’ll often find people willing to help you out along the way.

“I’m just blown away,” Wiley’s mother Brandie said when asked about the makeshift graduation’s meaning.

“Graduation is just so special. From the very first day of school, you imagine that moment. It’s the end of a journey. We both cried a lot of tears over it.”

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