By
Steve Hartman
Steve Hartman
Correspondent
Steve Hartman is a CBS News correspondent. He brings viewers moving stories from the unique people he meets in his weekly award-winning feature segment “On the Road.”
Updated on: September 12, 2025 / 7:51 PM EDT
/ CBS News
Cincinnati, Ohio — If Shacole Fox’s wedding processional last month in Cincinnati, Ohio, had been typical, the man walking her down the aisle would have been her father, a close relative, or even a good friend. Not Fox’s landlord.
“Right? I wouldn’t have thought in a million years,” Fox told CBS News of her decision to have her landlord, 79-year-old Gil Pulliam, do the honor.
Fox works as a makeup artist with a studio space in Cincinnati that is owned by Pulliam, a no-nonsense man.
And yet, he can also be incredibly tender-hearted.
Fox never knew her father. She thought she didn’t care and wouldn’t miss something she never felt she had. But as her wedding day approached, Fox says she started to feel a void.
“When I thought about who would walk me down the aisle, trying to figure out what that looks like, the thought of it was like…surprisingly painful,” said an emotional Fox.
Of course, Fox never told her landlord that. But he knew her family situation and had a gut feeling.
“So I went back up to ask Shacole if I could escort her down the aisle,” Pulliam said. “And she said, ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ And on and on and on.”
“The music is playing — and I’m getting ready to walk down the aisle — and he grabbed my hand so tight,” Fox said. “And it was a really good feeling…Yeah, it still is. Like a wound had been healed in my heart.”
Fox now has a husband, Victor. But she says she also added another family member on her wedding day, Pulliam, the father-figure who stepped up and stood beside her like all good fathers do.
Steve Hartman is a CBS News correspondent. He brings viewers moving stories from the unique people he meets in his weekly award-winning feature segment “On the Road.”
The post Why a Cincinnati bride’s landlord walked her down the aisle appeared first on CBS News.
