"It felt like the right thing to do to come back here,” wife Debby Dishon said
Credit: WFXR NEWS/YouTube
NEED TO KNOW
- A Virginia couple married in an emergency room chapel in 1976
- Fifty years later, they celebrated their milestone wedding anniversary by returning to the chapel to renew their vows
- “It felt like the right thing to do to come back here,” wife Debby Dishon said
A Virginia couple married in an emergency room chapel 50 years ago. So it was only fitting that they returned to the spot to celebrate their milestone 50th wedding anniversary with a vow renewal.
Back on March 20, 1976 — the first day of spring — Ricky and Debby Dishon from Pulaski were looking forward to saying "I do" at their wedding. But then they received a call from their pastor, who was supposed to officiate the ceremony, per local news outlet WFXR.
The pastor had been admitted to the LewisGale Hospital Pulaski emergency room with kidney stones and wasn't sure if he would be able to oversee their wedding as planned. Instead, he offered an unexpected solution.
“He called us and said … 'If you want to come up here, I’ll do it up here. There’s a chapel up here,' " Denny recalled.
The couple was game, so they made their way to the hospital chapel, where their pastor — wearing pajamas and a robe — joined them in matrimony.
Over the course of the Dishons' marriage, LewisGale would remain a meaningful place in their life story.
Ricky spent some time there working as an EMT before going to work at the Volvo plant in Dublin, Va., for more than 40 years. Debby, meanwhile, worked as a registered nurse in the emergency room for 31 years before her retirement in 2023.
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She told WFXR that she still runs into former patients in the grocery store and elsewhere around town.
“I found that what’s really important to most people, even if it’s been years since they saw you, is not the treatment I gave,” she noted. “Most of them don’t even remember what I did to them. It’s how they were treated, if you were nice to them.”
Considering their longstanding connection to the hospital, Debby and Ricky couldn't think of a better place to toast five decades of marriage.
“This place actually feels like family to us,” Debby said. “It was a great place. So, it felt like the right thing to do to come back here.”
On Saturday, March 28, they renewed their vows inside the chapel, with Debby holding a small bouquet of flowers for the joyful occasion.
As for what has kept their relationship strong all these years, the couple shared their simple secrets.
“I think you have to actually like the person,” Debby told WFXR. “Not just fall in love with them, which you do, but you have to like them as well.”
Added Ricky: “I’d just say, if she’s not your best friend, don’t marry her. She’s got to be your best friend.”
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