Her father went to bed one night, moaning about being out of breath. He was in the hospital the next day, battling for his life.
One thing after another quit working in Tom Monk’s 67-year-old body, faster than his family could keep up: his kidneys shut down, his liver failed, and he couldn’t breathe on his own. A blood clot had entered his lungs. His legs had run out of oxygen.
His feet began to become black.
And that’s when his 27-year-old daughter, Nickalena, decided to move her June wedding to right here, right now, in the dad’s ICU room.
She can’t marry without her father, she said to her fiancé, Tom Bedwell. She informed him she desired to marry in front of her father, regardless of whether he could see or hear what was going on. Bedwell instantly agreed.
So, on March 7, they married in an Iowa hospital room where her dad was hooked up to a ventilator – there in form, if not in spirit.
Her clothing was too small since it hadn’t been modified. But that was just okay with her. In a stationary rendition of a father-daughter dance, she murmured a prayer into her father’s ear and clutched his hand. Jamie Grant, a photographer, documented the moments.
It wasn’t the wedding she had envisioned, Nickalena said. “Most couples marry and go away; however, she spent the night in the hospital with him.
Nickalena expressed concern about her dad being alone. She probably left the hospital for an hour and a half, she estimated.
Her father was hospitalized on February 28. Everything that could have gone wrong did, she explained. She couldn’t tolerate looking at her father’s feet, and doctors indicated his legs would have to be amputated. But that could not even be considered since his health could not be stabilized.
Nickalena claimed to have had a heart-to-heart with one of her dad’s nurses one night. She was ready to hear the truth as it was.
If he pulls through this, the nurse said, he’ll be in a nursing home. He will have to go through multiple painful procedures for the amputations. He’ll need dialysis for the rest of his life, Nickalena explained.
In other words, he would have no quality of life and would only experience agony and misery.
The family opted to turn off his life support. So, two days after his hasty marriage, Tom Monk was taken off the ventilator on March 9. According to his daughter, he exited this world around 20 minutes later.
The wedding will still take place in June. Nickalena’s gown still has to be altered.
But she replied that could wait for now.
Her relatives and friends attended her father’s funeral on Monday.
