It’s not standard protocol at a short-term rehabilitation facility to receive a call asking if the outside courtyard area can be used for a wedding ceremony.
And actually, when Laura Hyatt left a voicemail, the first thought was she had mistakenly called our community rather than the other Water’s Edge on the shoreline.
However, it wasn’t long into her message that it was clear she was indeed wanting to exchange wedding vows with the love of her life, Richard “Rick” Carle, at Water’s Edge Center for Health & Rehabilitation.
Back in July 2011, both Carle and Hyatt, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1980, were residents on the short-term “Passport” Rehabilitation unit. It was a fateful encounter that would bring them back 10 months later — to exchange wedding vows.
Hyatt and Carle, both in their fifties, have never been married. According to Hyatt, “we were waiting for the right one,” she says, with a big smile on her face and a chuckle in her a voice, which was infused with love and happiness as she was about to marry.
A justice of the peace presided over their ceremony May 5.
“It was great to see Laura and Rick doing so well and I wish them much happiness together,” stated Lew Abramson, administrator at Water’s Edge Center for Health & Rehabilitation.
Water’s Edge Center for Health & Rehabilitation is a sub-acute skilled nursing facility offering short-term rehabilitation and long-term care including a secured Dementia/Alzheimer’s Unit and is located at 111 Church Street in Middletown.
