A couple have been married in a hospital’s coronavirus ward after an urgent appeal for a registrar, more than 46 years after they first met on the set of a pantomime.
Philip, 78, and Patricia, 88, were married at Coventry university hospital, where Patricia is being treated for Covid-19, on Friday.
Their wedding took place after a hospital staff member, Joanna Shakespeare, appealed on Twitter for help to find a registrar.
The couple, from Coventry, said “I do” with modern matron May Parsons and junior doctor Leigh Anne Brace as witnesses. A worker at Coventry register office officiated at the ceremony, the hospital said.
The University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire trust said the couple had been planning to marry after the pandemic but after waiting a year their plans changed and they asked for help from hospital staff.
The NHS trust said it was “an afternoon we won’t forget”.
A spokesperson added: “It may not have been the wedding they imagined, but our amazing staff were able to add some much needed sparkle to make their ceremony special by adding a few traditional touches, such as ‘new’ decorations, ‘borrowed’ rings, an army of ‘blue’ bridesmaids and, most importantly, an ‘old’, timeless love.
“This heartwarming reminder shows that it isn’t a choir and bouquets that make a wedding special; it’s commemorating the everlasting bond that two people share.
“From everyone at UHCW, we wish Philip and Patricia a huge congratulations and all the happiness in the world. It’s an afternoon we won’t forget.”
Shakespeare wrote on Twitter she was “so pleased they got to tie the knot after all this time”.
Hundreds of people posted congratulations and comments after the NHS trust published photographs of the wedding on Facebook.
