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Inova Plans Bedside Wedding for Dying Patient's Daughter

'In sickness and in health' --When Bill Malone couldn't last till the wedding in June, the wedding came to his hospital room

Dori Malone always knew that when she found the right man and got married, her father would walk her down the aisle. When the right day came, he was in a hospital bed, not able to walk her. But the nurses at Inova Loudoun Hospital arranged to have the wedding ceremony held in his room.

Dori met Jim O’Sullivan two years ago. She was right for him and he for her, and last August they set the date for their wedding: June 4, 2011.

But her father, Bill Malone, was back in Inova Loudoun Hospital, nearing the end of his 10-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Early last week, the nurses who care for him at the oncology wing of the hospital broke the bad news to his wife, Francie Malone, and to Dori: Barring a miracle, Bill was not going to live until June 4, the date set for the wedding at Sterling United Methodist Church. With the Malones’ blessing, the oncology staff, led by R.N. Amanda Korn, went to work and planned a wedding for May 19 in the hospital chapel. Gift shop volunteers sent orchids. Food service, with less than 24 hours notice, created a two-tiered wedding cake.  The nurses and the hospital’s Chief Financial Officer, Glenn Zirbser, gave a wedding present – an overnight at Lansdowne Resort.

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By the morning of May 19, Bill Malone didn’t have the strength to get to the chapel. The wedding was moved to his room.

A little past 2 p.m., in a normally sterile hospital room now filled with flowers and family, in the company of his wife, sisters, mother-in-law and his new son-in-law’s mother, Bill Malone attended his only child’s wedding.

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“I’ve never known a ceremony quite like this,” said Rev. Randy Duncan, Sterling United Methodist Church. “It makes me joyful that everybody can come together, and that so much love was poured out by the staff and family to allow this to happen, to make Dori’s wish and dream come true.”

In his conversations with Dori and Jim, preparing for the wedding, Duncan said, “her greatest wish was for her dad to be present, to walk her down the aisle. He couldn’t walk her down the aisle, but her was certainly present. To see the joy on his face made it very special.”

Amanda Korn, his nurse for the last seven or more years, opened the ceremony singing Shania Twain’s “From This Moment.” And at the moment the couple exchanged rings, Bill Malone raised his hands and clapped.

Back in 1999, Bill Malone learned he had pancreatic cancer, said his older sister, Maggie Gillikin, who made the trip from Texas to be at the wedding. His other sister, Ruth, came from Maryland.

Her brother had been in good health for most of those 10 years, Maggie said, until last September when the disease came back in strength. “He overcame every single setback, never complaining, he has an incredibly high tolerance for pain.”

He was determined to see his only child married, both sisters said. Now he can find peace.

Bill Malone, 65, passed away the next day, in the company of his family and his newly married daughter.

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