A love stronger than illness, Andrea and Monia get married at the hospice “Don’t wait, live in the moment”

Of Frances Marsili

Last December, before the disease even prevented him from walking, he called her in the middle of the night from a hospital room: “Will you marry me?”. She didn’t think about it for a single moment: «I was waiting for nothing but this». Yesterday afternoon the fateful yes: Andrea Merlini and Monia Ripari got married in the Hospice of the Bartolomeo Eustachio hospital in San Severino, between tears of emotion in one of the most difficult moments of their lives. She is 47 years old, from Tolentino, a kindergarten teacher. 51 he, from Macerata, employee of Unimc in the Technical Services Area.

A religious ceremony celebrated by Don Gianni Compagnucci, in the intimacy of the room on the first floor of the Hospice and palliative care department where the groom has been hospitalized since last January, because Andrea is unable to get off that bed. Next to the bedside table, an altar set up for the occasion. Sitting next to him is Monia who doesn’t stop giving him courage. Beautiful in her white wedding dress with an essential taste, like their love. On the side, the four witnesses. In front of them a tripod on which a mobile phone is positioned which broadcasts the ceremony via live Zoom. In the meeting room downstairs, outside the ward, guests follow her in front of a screen. Now Andrea and Monia have crowned their wish: they are husband and wife. A buffet at the entrance of the structure with the wedding cake. Monia goes up and down the stairs, greets her relatives and then runs upstairs to the love of her life. At the end of the evening, the bride and groom catch their breath after a succession of moods.

They tell their story marked by the most terrible news that arrived last September, after returning from a vacation: Andrea has a tumor. In December, a long hospitalization in Macerata. It was at that moment that he picked up the phone and asked Monia to marry him, to want her for the rest of her days. At Christmas he was discharged, but at the beginning of January the situation worsened and he was admitted to the hospice. In February they decide to take the plunge, quickly. “The disease made me realize how much I wanted it. We prayed that the Lord would give us time to get married – Andrea says in a faint voice – and we did it. We wanted to put a point in our lives. There is more truth in our choice now, not knowing what will happen, than doing it without the disease».

Monia, while she never stops following her husband with her eyes, wants to witness a message: “When you realize that yours is a great love, don’t wait, live in the moment, the moment, because life can change overnight”. The bride does not forget to thank both the parish priest of San Catervo who celebrated the wedding and the bishop of Macerata Nazzareno Marconi who made it possible in a very short time. But also the palliative care staff that she did everything to make their dream come true in the most normal way possible. After all, the mission of the San Severino Hospice department is to increase the quality of life of patients. And the health personnel have not failed, once again, to demonstrate their humanity.