We were honored to take part in the first-ever wedding to take place in the newly opened University Medical Center of New Orleans on Friday, April 22, 2016. Yolanda Welsh and Michael Cheeks had been looking forward to their wedding, planned for November 2016, since Michael proposed last August. Their plans changed when Yolanda was admitted to UMC last week and they learned that her stage 4 kidney disease was now at stage 5. Michael and Yolanda decided to move up their wedding and contacted the hospital’s attorney and staff for guidance on notarizing their marriage paperwork. Knowing that this is not the wedding Yolanda had dreamed of, hospital staff immediately got to work to make their wedding special. They reserved the hospital chapel for a ceremony for the following day, worked with the hospital chaplains to find a minister, our own Pastor Fred, to marry the couple with only a day’s notice! Hospital staff also arranged for items such as a veil, jewelry, wedding bouquet and boutonniere, aisle runner, rose petals, guest book, toasting glasses and more.
“I was just overjoyed that I could help Yolanda and Michael to make this happen,” said Reverend Fred J. Powell, III. “When I saw them together in the hospital on Friday afternoon, I was just struck by their joy, by the calmness of their love, and the fact that they deeply trusted in God. They saw that this was a beginning and that God would make a way.”
Best wishes to the happy couple!
