I often hear stories that remind me health care is so much more than a job. This story, of Medical Center of the Rockies nurses and staff helping a young Fort Collins couple marry at the MCR chapel before the husband had to leave for military duty, is one of those. Kevin Darst in our PR department talked to the couple this morning and wrote this story:
The wedding came together in an hour, one day after the birth of Nathan and Cesilie Kettle’s son, Tate, and included a security escort and a nurse playing the wedding march on the piano. Tate was also the ring bearer.
“The staff here is amazing,” said Cesilie’s mom, Shaire Chavez. “They totally came together to make this a life-enriching experience for these two.”
It started Monday night, when Cesilie went into labor and went to MCR in Loveland. Tate, all 5 pounds, 11 ounces, and 20 1/2 inches of him, was born Tuesday — his due date. When the couple laid the baby down to sleep in the hospital that night, Nathan proposed. Cesilie accepted.
“I told her I knew she was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with,” Nathan said. “I want to raise our son the right way with a happy family.”
Watch a slideshow of the couple’s wedding and stay at MCR.
Nathan, 21, was slated to return to the Army’s Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Friday. He’d given Cesilie, also 21, a promise ring over Thanksgiving weekend but, since he’d been in North Carolina, hadn’t had time to propose. After Tate’s birth, Nathan decided the time was right — but he had to act quickly. He went to Walmart and bought two wedding bands (“I think these are going to mean much more, emotionally,” he said.), talked to his and Cesilie’s parents, and popped the question.
“It was perfect timing,” Cesilie said.
While Nathan went to the county building to get marriage license paperwork, his mom mentioned to Cesilie’s nurse at MCR, Grayson Braddy, that the couple was going to get married. Grayson suggested the chapel on MCR’s main level and went quickly to work on the details. The couple wanted their newborn baby at the ceremony, which would mean removing the electronic security band all babies wear at MCR, so Grayson arranged to remove the band and have security escort the wedding party downstairs and stand watch in the first-floor corridor near the chapel.
The couple, meanwhile, called their minister, who eagerly agreed to officiate the wedding. Friends and family jumped at the chance to serve as bridesmaids and groomsmen. And Barrie Harms, an MCR nurse and the nursing supervisor that night, volunteered to play the piano in the chapel, sending the couple off to the Wedding March.
During the ceremony, the wedding bands were placed on Tate’s chest, and he was carried to his young parents by Cesilie’s sister.
“The staff at the hospital was phenomenal,” said Shann Kettle, Nathan’s mom, who added that the young couple has a strong support system in the area. ”The efforts of the staff to bend over backwards, the spirit they put into it, you would have thought they were family.
“We could have had a very wonderful family experience. The staff effort made it twice as special.”
–Rulon
