'Christmas Wedding Miracle' at MUHC for Woman with Advanced Ovarian Cancer

At Saturday’s ceremony, groom Daves Lachance, 41, told bride Kelly Bédard, 24, “For better and for worse, forever.”

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Susan schwartz • Montreal Gazette

Kelly Bédard and Daves Lachance found out, while Bédard was pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, who had advanced ovarian cancer. Photo courtesy of Daves Lachance

It was so last minute that no votes had been prepared. But what Daves Lachance told his girlfriend, Kelly Bédard, “couldn’t have been more appropriate,” said Liat Lev-Ary, the notary who officiated the couple’s emergency wedding ceremony at Glen of the Health Center of McGill University on Saturday.

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“He said, ‘For better and for worse, forever.’ They started crying. And we all started crying. “

Bédard, 24, learned while pregnant with the couple’s fourth child that she had advanced ovarian cancer.

“We think of our family,” said Lachance, who has three children from a previous relationship. The oldest of the seven is 14 years old; the youngest, the only girl, was born last summer. “We wanted to do the best for our family, all together.”

Just a few days ago, the Mont-Laurier couple, who had already discussed marriage, decided they wanted a Christmas wedding. They asked the medical and nursing staff to help organize it, “but it’s not easy,” said Lachance, 41.

One of the MUHC nurses knew of a lawyer who posted a request late last week on a mothers’ community Facebook page for help to perform a “Christmas wedding miracle.”

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Lev-Ary saw the post; Helping the couple felt like “a calling,” he said. He had officiated at a wedding under similar circumstances and he knew what to do. She rearranged weekend and vacation plans with her own family (she and her husband have four children) to be available.

When a couple wants to marry, the impending marriage must be notified 20 days in advance; It is known as posting bans. The law gives Lev-Ary the ability, as a notary, to waive the 20-day waiting period. She has only used it once before: in that case, the groom, who was seriously ill, died three days later.

Money was a problem for the couple; Bédard has been in and out of the hospital for the past seven months, mostly in. Lachance, who is in the payments of the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail after a workplace injury, does not want to part with Bédard’s side and has been sleeping in the hospital. His parents and mother are taking care of the children.

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An anonymous donor came forward on Facebook to offer to cover Lev-Ary’s fee, which she had reduced.

“I wanted to help. It wasn’t about the money,” he said.

A MUHC nurse acted as liaison and provided the necessary contact information. “We were all focused on making it happen,” Lev-Ary said.

On Saturday Bédard applied makeup, got out of bed and, although weak and frail, walked to the family room of a hospital. She was wearing a hospital gown (drainage tubes prevented her from putting on her dress) and the groom admired his bride, telling her over and over how beautiful she is.

Lev-Ary donned a black robe and the mothers of the bride and groom served as witnesses. Lachance’s sister was present. Several nurses were standing in the doorway, joking that they were the ones crashing into the wedding. After the ceremony, the couple toasted with non-alcoholic champagne.

“Life is precious. Time is a gift,” Lev-Ary wrote in a Facebook post. “Let us embrace the people we love and stop to appreciate what we have.”