Nursing home sets stage for vows

Cindy Bennett, dressed in her bridal gown, walked down the aisle between rows of elderly nursing home residents to meet her groom.

Bright red hearts hung from the ceiling tiles and Cupids decorated the walls of the nursing home's dining room for Valentine's Day, helping to set a romantic tone for the Feb. 10 nuptials.

The staff at Keeper of the Flame, a nursing home near Black Lick on Route 119, had worked hard all day to help the residents get dressed up and look their best to enjoy the big day.

'It was very 'fairy tale.' All the residents looked beautiful,' said Bennett, 48, who works at the nursing home, formerly as a nurse's aide and now as a cook. 'We had music and so much food. It was a party.'

One elderly woman who lives at the nursing home had arranged through the minister to surprise the couple by reading a love poem.

Other residents also got caught up in the festive mood.

'These people are just so wonderful themselves,' said Bennett. 'They each have a personality, though it's changed. They need some happiness in their lives. ... I thought it would be wonderful to have them participate in the wedding. Just to have them be there was to have them participate. That was my dream wedding.'

Of the 32 residents at the nursing home, all but one, who had just broken her hip, attended the ceremony, along with about 100 other guests.

'The ones who meant more to me weren't very ambulatory and couldn't have been transported if the wedding were somewhere else,' Bennett said. 'That's why I wanted it here.'

Her husband, Ted Bennett, felt very comfortable with the location.

'I didn't mind having it here,' he said while visiting the nursing home. 'I know most of these people.'

The groom knew the minister very well too. They had worked in the same coal mining crew, along with the best man, until local mine closings in 1988.

Ted Bennett, who now works for the owners of the nursing home in their concrete business, frequently visits the home and seems to be a favorite of a few of the women who live there.

An elderly woman lying in a bed calls to him, and he's by her side in a moment to see what she needs and let someone on the staff know. 'This one, she knew me all of my life,' said Ted Bennett, 68, who is from the Black Lick area, where he and his wife now live.

Without needing to be asked, he'll put a sweater back on a resident's shoulders or pull out a chair for someone walking by a bit unsteadily. He cared for his late wife, Gladys, for 12 years at home after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

If he had changed his mind about getting married to Cindy Bennett, she had a 'backup' in the audience, Leonard Houser, one of the residents. 'He told me if Ted chickened out, he was going to marry me,' she said.

Houser smiled at her and nodded when she told of his 'backup' plan. 'She was a beautiful bride,' Houser said. 'It was one of the most beautiful weddings I ever saw.'

Nursing home resident Florence Baughman added, 'He (Ted) looked so lovely too. ... It was so nice to have it here. I knew (Ted) for a long time. That made it more happy for me.'

Another resident, Betty Barr, recalled that the groom had tears in his eyes, and he wasn't the only one.

Houser admitted it. 'I'm very sentimental,' Houser said.

Though the wedding is over, it is remembered as one of the more exciting events held recently at the nursing home.

'I think everyone had a good time,' Barr said.

Sharon Smith, who, along with her husband, Rob, owns Keeper of the Flame, said she never expected the couple to choose the nursing home as the site for their wedding.

'I was surprised, but it seemed really sweet,' she said, adding that Cindy Bennett has a sincere fondness for the residents. At the end of the festivities, one resident's heart rate dropped too low and an ambulance had to be called through 911 for her, Smith said.

'Cindy was on her knees on the floor in her gown, checking on her,' Smith said.

The elderly woman, whose boyfriend had been at the wedding too, is now back at the nursing home. Along with a few boyfriends, some of the residents' family members attended the wedding.

The bride had wanted a Valentine's Day wedding, but the holiday fell in the middle of the week, which would have been difficult for some of her family living in Altoona.

Though it wasn't on Valentine's Day, the romance in the air was contagious for some.

Two elderly women who live at the nursing home and had boyfriends visiting them for the wedding were so caught up in the romance of the ceremony that they started dropping hints about planning weddings of their own, Smith said.

'Everyone was kind of caught up in it right from the start,' Smith said. 'They (the Bennetts) loved it, and the residents absolutely loved it. They were very happy, very excited.'