B.C. couple to marry at Ontario long-term care home as small wedding becomes community event
CBC
Sarah Joy Hopkin says her original plan was to get married next summer, but when the Vancouver resident heard her mother's health was failing, moving the date up a year and having the event at a Waterloo, Ont., long-term care home was a no-brainer.
"There is really nothing more that I wanted, other than … to have my mom present," Hopkin, who's getting married today, said this week while standing at her mother's bedside.
After a couple of recent health scares left her mother bedridden, Hopkin decided to bring the wedding to Waterloo's Parkwood Seniors Community, also known as Parkwood Mennonite Home, where Judi Hopkin could receive the support she needed to attend the ceremony and spend invaluable time with her daughter.
Judi was put in palliative care and given a number of months to live, but her spirits in the days before the wedding were high.
"I thought, 'Oh, please just get me to the wedding. Get me to the wedding,'" she said.
Judi has spent the last three years at Parkwood Seniors Community in a form of isolation rivalling that of one for COVID-19 . Her condition has made mobility nearly impossible.
"I really only know this room," she said, adding that the wedding has "opened up the whole of Parkwood to me in many ways."
Originally, her daughter requested a small, immediate family-only ceremony in Judy's room for her marriage to Chris Jimmo.
When she spoke with Parkwood's executive director, Christine Normandeau, she thought she'd be met with hesitation, especially so soon after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. But Normandeau thought they could do more.
"I just thought it was wonderful," Normandeau said
Now, what was a private family event has turned into "the talk of the town," Sarah Joy Hopkin said.
The ceremony was not only approved, but has been moved into the facility's Fellowship Hall, the largest room in the home.
Parkwood is also providing flowers, piano tuning, additional cleaning, access to audio-visual equipment and use of the kitchen, the bride-to-be said. It's expected there will be 70 guests at the event.
"We never imagined that this would be possible. The staff at Parkwood has gone above 'above and beyond' to make this day a joyful celebration of love and community."
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