EAST PROVIDENCE, RI —A wedding three years in the making, a story unfolding against the extraordinary backdrop of a worldwide pandemic, faced one more improbable obstacle Saturday morning — an April snowstorm.
When Mick McGovern went for a morning walk hours before his outdoor ceremony to marry Susan Nestell in front of his 92-year-old mother, Estelle, he found 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground, and the weather forecast predicted an afternoon of cold rain.
The wedding had already been delayed from December so that Estelle, a resident of the Linn Health & Rehabilitation facility in East Providence, could attend. But because no nursing home visitation is allowed under the state’s stay-at-home order, the ceremony had to be held somewhere outside, whatever the weather might be.
“I am an eternal optimist,” McGovern told Patch, “but this seemed like a case of everything that could go wrong going wrong.”
That’s when his soon-to-be stepdaughter Jillian offered some perspective.
“She said you were going to get married on Dec. 12, so there probably would have been snow on your wedding day anyway,” he recalled. “She was right.”
McGovern arrived at the rehab facility about 30 minutes before the 1:30 p.m. ceremony, just as the rain stopped. He and Susan were married in front of a wedding party of eight, as Estelle, who is blind, listened from inside on Bluetooth speakers.
“As soon as we got back into my truck at 2, the rain started again,” McGovern said with a laugh.
It was because of Estelle that Mick, 70, and Susan, 53, met three years ago. Susan is Estelle’s certified nursing assistant, and Estelle persistently tried to set up her son and her favorite caretaker.
Mick was at his mother’s bedside during a 2017 visit when Estelle finally got her wish: The two met and the spark was lit.
Mick and Susan had been having some second thoughts after delaying the December wedding. Mick was battling a cold, and got to see his mother only once before visitation was halted.
“She’s lonely,” McGovern said. “It’s horrible to be elderly and alone. Imagine being blind and sitting alone in a hallway each day.”
They decided two weeks ago to schedule the ceremony for April 18 so that Estelle could “attend” from behind the glass. Although she suffers from symptoms of dementia, McGovern said, he is certain the ceremony is “ingrained in her memory.”
“Mom is ecstatic,” McGovern said. “She is the hit of the nursing home right now.”
McGovern said that all possible precautions were taken to keep everyone safe. Six of the eight people involved in the ceremony live in the same household, with the other two barely leaving their homes for the past month. He said there have been no confirmed positive cases of coronavirus at the facility.
“Everyone stayed at least 6 feet away from each other, except for one group photo — and for that we all held our breath for 30 seconds,” he said.
While McGovern said the ceremony itself was small, the publicity surrounding it opened it up to a much bigger audience.
“We never expected it would turn into anything like this,” he said. “It’s been phenomenal with with everyone finding out about it on the news. We and the kids love it. It seems like the whole state has seen us.”
McGovern, a veteran, said he feels like “a penny next to a $100 dollar bill” when he is in the presence of the health care workers at the nursing home. And when he’s around his new bride, he feels like he’s hit the lottery.
“She is so dedicated to these people,” he said. “She could be exhausted, or have a headache, but she would never miss a shift. You can’t stop her from going in there to help.
“I could have never hoped to have met a sweeter, more dedicated woman.”
(If you have a story of a local business or organization that is looking to lend a hand to those in need during the coronavirus pandemic,or lift spirits amid social distancing and isolation, Patch wants to let people in your community know about it. Contact Scott Souza at [email protected] to help us spread the positives during this uncertain time.)
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