Eugene Jemison was all set to marry Michelle Vivian. They planned to have their wedding on Sunday at the Vineyard home of some friends in Oak Bluffs. Everything was going as planned, until a medical scare threw things for a loop.
On Saturday, Jemison became ill, and was rushed to the emergency room at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. But Jemison and Vivian were determined to get married, and with the help of family, friends, and hospital staff, the wedding went on.
The wedding, slated for their friend Alison Fraizer-Hayden’s home near the Sailing Camp, ended up happening in the hospital’s second-floor foyer. Hospital staff set up chairs, couches, and tables for the ceremony while wedding guests arrived.
Jemison was bedridden, but rallied enough to be able to don his wedding suit and meet Vivian in her white gown in the foyer. The couple’s friend, Atzic Marquez, played the violin; Bob Tankard officiated the ceremony and led the couple in their vows. He offered the couple some friendly advice for their life together: Never go to bed angry, always keep a sense of humor, always communicate, continue to build the relationship, and always remember the littlest things make the biggest difference.
“We are here … to hear and to bear witness to the transformative power of love,” Tankard said.
Jemison and Vivian read their vows to each other in front of family and friends. “I chose you to be my companion, my partner, and my friend,” Jemison said.
Jemison’s son Ethan presented the couple with their rings. After saying “I do” to each other, the couple cut their cake in an adjoining room before heading back hand in hand to Jemison’s hospital room as hospital staff urged Jemison back into a wheelchair.
At the small and brief reception (complete with cake), Frazier-Hayden said Jemison was determined to marry Vivian that day and nothing was going to stop him. “He really wanted to get married,” she said. “He really loves her.”