Though it was not the day or the ceremony she may have expected, Heather Airth’s wedding day was a special one in an unexpected way.
The 19-year-old Kent resident and U.S. Coast Guardsman was scheduled to marry her high school sweetheart Zachary Hoydic on Sunday. But on Saturday, Airth was not feeling right and went to Valley Medical Center, where she was admitted.
With Hoydic, a U.S. Marine headed back to the East Coast where he is stationed on Monday night, it looked like the couple’s wedding may have to be put on hold, which would have been a problem because Airth is pregnant and the couple would like the military to station them together in the future.
“I was hoping I was just being little paranoid,” Airth said about going to Valley on Saturday. “But it didn’t turn out that way.”
It turned out Airth had a kidney infection, which because of the pregnancy meant she was going to have to stay at Valley at least overnight. Which meant that plans to get married may have had to be scrubbed.
But when Airth told the folks at Valley about the plans they had to cancel and asked if the chaplain could marry them, the hospital jumped into action.
On Monday, when Airth was released and before Hoydic had to fly back to his base, she was wheeled directly to the hospital’s healing garden where the hospital chaplain was ready to perform the ceremony.
“It was really pretty.” Airth said. “There were flowers and cake. It was not what I was expecting.”
The flowers had been donated by the hospital’s gift shop and the cake was purchased by the hospital employees. Communications Manager Lisa Gillin said the hospital staff just wanted to make sure the couple could get married before Hoydic had to ship out.
“They didn’t have to do that,” Airdic said, thanking the hospital and staff. “It was really amazing they’d do something like that when they didn’t have to.”
So while it may not have been quite what they were expecting, Airth said her day was absolutely a special one.
“When I looked at him, everything seemed right,” She said of her husband. “I couldn’t stop smiling.”
