Brides share wedding festivities with memory care residents

Have you ever hosted a marriage ceremony at your community? One memory care center did just that so that a father could participate in his daughter's celebration. Another bride stopped by the memory care center where she works, on the way to her wedding, so that residents could see her gown.

Bernard Reeves, 64, received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in 2006 and moved to Foundation Park Alzheimer's Care Center in Toledo about two years ago. Now that the disease is in the advanced stages, his daugther worried that he would wander off at her upcoming wedding, planned for a church in Ypsilanti, Mich. So the couple brought the celebration to him.

So describes a Toledo Blade article detailing the “small, informal garden ceremony” Aug. 16 at Foundation Park during which Miriam Reeves and Mark Davis were married.

“When we came up with the idea of having the wedding there, they [the care center] were very excited about it. I didn't expect that,” Miriam Reeves told the newspaper, adding that she thinks it was a first for Foundation Park.

Bernard Reeves was able to walk his daughter down the aisle, the Blade reported.

Visit the newspaper's website to read the entire article and see a gallery of photos from the ceremony.

Sharing the special day

Meanwhile, in a Cleveland suburb, Brittany Yereb stopped by the Arden Courts memory care community in Westlake, where she and her mother are caregivers, on the way to her nearby wedding on July 26 so that residents could see her in her wedding gown.

“The residents have been hearing about the wedding since Brittany and D.J. [Jewell] became engaged,” said mother Michelle. “We just had to stop by and let them all see her in her dress.” Residents also enjoyed seeing Michelle in her mother-of-the-bride dress.

In an article written by Arden Courts Marketing Director Lisa Anthony for the Westlake-Bay Village Observer, Brittany adds: “The residents loved seeing my dress. Many had seen pictures of it, but it’s not the same as in person. They just lit up when they saw me. It made their day and mine!”

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