This pandemic wedding comes with a window seat from a LTC home

Penny Baran and her partner Nathan Tam had plans to get married in Elora, Ont., in April 2022 with 200 of their closest friends and family. But things changed when Baran's grandmother, Thelma May Ollsen said, "I have to see you get married."

The 91-year old has Parkinson's disease and lives at the The Village of Glendale Crossing, a long-term care facility in London, Ont.

So during a pandemic, with many long-term care residents still locked down, Baran, 24, and Tam, 26, knew what they had to do. They moved their wedding date, and after two short weeks of planning the big day, they married on the grounds of Ollsen's facility last Saturday.

"This was the only way that we could make it happen. And we just wanted her to be there for that special moment," said Baran, whose grandmother had a window seat to the whole experience.

A cellphone held between the couple captured the ceremony as it played through a speaker phone for Ollsen, who had a visible sight line to the pair, from an office inside.

"When the minister said husband and wife, the look on their faces was sheer happiness," said Ollsen.

"It's not what you dream of when you're 10 years old," admitted Baran. "But it was the most perfect day because my grandmother was there and I'm marrying the love of my life."

"Afterwards we got to sit at the window and talk to her. And it was very emotional, a lot of tears from everybody," said Baran, who works at The Village at University Gates, a seniors' facility in Waterloo, Ont. 

She said her passion for the industry came after visiting her late paternal grandmother in a seniors' facility and realizing how difficult life could be for the residents.

"I just wanted to create smiles and be that sunlight in somebody's day."

Baran took one day off after her wedding so her husband could move in with her. The couple still plans to hold that other bigger wedding next year.