Bride Marries At Terminally Ill Father's Bedside In Hackettstown

HACKETTSTOWN, NJ - It isn't the wedding a bride-to-be has planned. The medical staff intead of ushers, the soft trilling of the machines instead of a string quartet.

But Elizabeth Manca, of Stillwater, was able to marry the love of her life at her father's bedside at Hackettstown Medical Center last month shortly before he passed away.

In July, Manca was told her father, Michael J. Manca, Sr., had a short time to live. While reeling from the terminal diagnosis, Barron said her only wish was to let her father see her get married.

Michael J. Manca Sr. was the center of all her family's world, Elizabeth Manca said. He was born in Montclair and served in the United States Navy before being honorably discharged. Her father loved for working with his hands, volunteering and gardening. Now, this "Mr. Fix-It" needed to use those hands to give his daughter away.

After receiving the bad news, Manca's boyfriend Dean Barron moved up his timeline and asked her to marry him. The couple quickly started to plan a wedding at the house where her father planned to receive hospice care.

But his health started deteriorating faster than expected and while Elizabeth and Dean were getting their marriage license, they learned that her father had taken a turn for the worse.

His care team told Elizabeth they were unsure whether he would make it to hospice care.

So they decided to have the wedding immediately, at the hospital.

"When we walked into my dad's room, he was in tears seeing us all there with him," Barron said. "My dad was able to give me away to marry my love. It was so special in the most amazing way to have that moment and share it with everyone there."

Elizabeth said she knew how unconventional it may have seemed, but to them it wasn’t.

"It was exactly how it was supposed to be. It was intimate, full of love and in the presence of my father," she said.

Elizabeth Barron said that she and her family are all eternally grateful to have been given that moment to remember forever.

"We are forever thankful for all those who helped make it happen," she said.

Manca passed away a short time later at the age of 73.

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