Emergency hastens couple’s marital plans

GRAYS HARBOR, Wash. – When Mae Bryson was rushed to the hospital with heart problems, her family gathered around in an unusual way – with an emergency wedding in the ER.

James Jacobs and Marcy Thatcher had been planning to get married on Jan. 14, even though their plans were still a little sketchy on Saturday when they heard that James’ grandmother was ill.

Jacobs asked Thatcher, a hairdresser, to cut his hair. Then he put on a nice shirt.

“I knew he was thinking something,” she told the Daily News in Aberdeen.

As the couple drove to the emergency room, Jacobs told her he thought they should get married right away. Thatcher quickly agreed.

“It was pretty typical behavior for me,” she said. “It’s more planning than I usually put into things.”

Jacobs, of Aberdeen, and Thatcher, of Hoquiam, met while working for Ocean Spray, where they became close friends. But their relationship didn’t go any further because one of them was married at the time.

A few months ago, however, the two ran into each other twice in the same day. Thatcher says fate and Jacobs’ grandmother got them back together.

She helped them make it official on Saturday at the hospital.

“The doctor said I wasn’t doing so well,” said Bryson, 77, who told the couple she wanted to see them get married.

It took some complicated maneuvering to make it happen. First, they had to get their six sons – each has three boys, ranging in age from 5 to 29 – to the hospital.

Thatcher said she called her oldest, Jamie Field.

“I called him and said, ‘I’m going to be marrying James in the ER Room 6, and if you want to come you’d better get here soon,’ ” she said.

Once they were there, Thatcher gave them all haircuts.

Then they needed to find someone to perform the ceremony. After a few discouraging phone calls to local ministers, one of the nurses told Jacobs that the hospital has on-call clergy. Hospital chaplain Dave Monsen was paged to answer an emergency of the heart.

“There are disadvantages to being on call 24-7, but this time it was an advantage,” Monsen said.

There wasn’t much of an aisle to stroll down in Emergency Room 6, and no music unless you include the wall-shaking snores of the patient in the next bed and the beep of a heart monitor. But the wedding brought a moment of happiness to Bryson and the hospital staff, who said it was their first emergency room wedding.

“So many not-so-good things happen here, and this provides a balance to that,” said Thom Hightower, the hospital’s chief operating officer.

Bryson told her grandson and his new wife she was happy for them. “I’m sure they’ll do fine,” she said.