“I really didn’t want anything else but for my mom to be there,” the bride says
Sarah Joy Hopkin says her original plan was to get married next summer. However, when she heard that her mother’s health was getting worse, the Vancouver resident knew she had to move the date up a year and have the wedding at a long-term care home in Waterloo, Ontario.
Hopkin, who is getting married today, said this week, as she stood by her mother’s bedside, that there was nothing else she wanted more than for her mother to be there.
After a couple of recent health scares put her mother in bed, Hopkin decided to hold the wedding at Waterloo’s Parkwood Seniors Community, also known as Parkwood Mennonite Home. There, Judi Hopkin could get the help she needed to attend the wedding and spend important time with her daughter.
Judi was given a few months to live and put in palliative care, but she was in a good mood in the days before her wedding.
“I thought, ‘Oh, just get me to the wedding,'” he said. She said, “Take me to the wedding.”
Judi has been so alone at Parkwood Seniors Community for the last three years that it’s almost like she’s been in COVID-19. Her illness has made it almost impossible for her to move.
“I really only know this room,” she said, adding that the wedding had “opened up the whole of Parkwood to me in many ways.”
Wedding is talk of LTC hom
At first, her daughter wanted to get married to Chris Jimmo in a small, close family-only ceremony in Judy’s room.
When she talked to Christine Normandeau, the executive director of Parkwood, she thought she would be met with doubt, since COVID-19 restrictions had just been lifted. Normandeau, however, thought that they could do more.
“I thought it was just wonderful,” Normandeau said.
What used to be a private family event is now “the talk of the town,” said Sarah Joy Hopkin.
The ceremony was not only given the go-ahead, but it was also moved to the home’s largest room, the Fellowship Hall.
The bride-to-be said that Parkwood is also providing flowers, piano tuning, extra cleaning, access to audio-visual equipment, and use of the kitchen. It is likely that there will be 70 people at the event.
“We never thought that this could happen. The staff at Parkwood has gone above and beyond to make this day a happy celebration of love and community.
Jaime Kissack, who helps Judi with her personal needs, will also be there for the big day.
Kissack said, “I think this is really exciting,” adding that it was a good thing to think about after the pandemic. “Judi and I got along great from the start. She’s a pretty nice person, I guess,” she said.
“She’s very at ease with me, and I’ll make sure she stays that way. I’m there for her no matter what.”
Other people who live there are also helping to get ready. Before Saturday’s ceremony, a table with wedding photos from the middle of the 20th century and wedding dresses that had been kept in perfect condition all these years was set up.
Normandeau talked about how important the exhibit was and how it gave people “meaningful chances to reflect and remember.”
“This wedding has given a lot of people a chance to come together over something that is really important and that everyone can get behind.”
From bumpy start to ‘I do
Hopkin and Jimmo met right before the COVID-19 lockdown in B.C. began. The two people found each other on two different online dating sites.
Jimmo said, “It was clear that we had to leave.”
Jimmo took Hopkin to Vancouver’s Shameful Tiki room, a cocktail bar that serves meat dishes, for their first date. At the time, Hopkin was a vegetarian who didn’t drink. Jimmo, who works in TV visual effects, said he found out on the date that Hopkin didn’t even own a TV.
He said, “I was thinking, Maybe I’ll get a second date, but probably not.” “Three strikes, done.”
Hopkin’s first thought about Jimmo was that he paid attention to details.
“He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt that went with the tiki room. And the Tiki Room is a very hard-to-get-into restaurant.She said, “They don’t take reservations.” “I was very impressed by how hard he worked.”
Jimmo then said that he had stood in the pouring rain for half an hour just to make sure they got inside.
They went on casual dates for the next three months, and then they moved in together by chance. “He moved in with me right when COVID started,” said Hopkin.
“It kind of just went from there.”
Getting married to an Elvis son
If Hopkin has a bigger wedding, more friends and family can come to celebrate with them.
The music and cupcakes are being taken care of by close friends, and her uncle will be the officiant. Hopkin’s sister is the maid of honor, and her nieces, who are 11 and 13 years old, are the bridesmaids.
“It’s kind of like a bigger sense of community. Hopkin said, “It’s really been a community.”
She will walk down the aisle while 70 voices sing Elvis’s Can’t Help Falling In Love.
“I told my mom that, and that was one of the songs she and my dad loved the most. So it’s like a circle.”
Judi said that being able to go to the wedding was “just so powerful” to her.
She said that everyone at Parkwood has gone the extra mile, which has moved her.
“Everyone has been so great about helping me do what I can to be a part of this, from the top down to the caregivers and the chaplain,” Judi said.”It really means something.”