Latest news with #vowrenewal
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mom with Stage 4 Cancer Renews Vows with College Sweetheart. Their 5-Year-Old Son Walks Her Down the Aisle (Exclusive)
Jordan and John Groom, both 29, celebrated their vow renewal in California earlier this month while she faces cancer 'We wanted a moment of brightness for our family and friends to remember," Jordan says of the ceremony, which was organized by nonprofit Wish Upon a Wedding 'I know it sounds cliché, but I've never seen a couple that embodies love as much as they do,' a longtime friend gushesEditor's note: Johnny Dodd, a senior writer at PEOPLE, first began covering Chicago-based nonprofit Wish Upon a Wedding last year. Earlier this month, he attended one of the ceremonies they organize for terminal and seriously ill couples, speaking with the family and organizers. This is the their story. A misty drizzle was falling one recent afternoon as I stood in a patch of walnut trees 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles. I'd come there to watch the vow renewal ceremony of two 29-year-old college sweethearts — Jordan and John Groom — who have spent the past two years grappling with the kind of nightmare that none of us would ever want to face. Jordan was diagnosed with stage 4 anal cancer that has spread to her lungs and the lymph nodes around her pelvis. And on May 7, while the rest of the world went about its business, the couple — along with friends and family members — gathered under a dark gray sky to renew their vows and celebrate their love for one another with those who have stood by them during this often-bleak chapter of their lives. 'I might not be here much longer,' Jordan said a few minutes before the start of the ceremony at a venue known as The Walnut Grove in Moorpark, Calif. 'We wanted a moment of brightness for our family and friends to remember," she added. "So many people have sacrificed and given us so much during this tough time we've been going through. This is a way for us to celebrate each other, along with our whole support system.' Not surprising to anyone who knows the bubbly couple, the ceremony — which included their 5-year-old son, Noah, walking Jordan down the aisle — was cheery and light, despite the weather and the circumstances. Those in attendance gushed over the Grooms' deep love and dedication to one another. 'I know it sounds cliché, but I've never seen a couple that embodies love as much as they do,' said longtime friend Jackie Quzman. 'It makes me emotional just thinking about it. Even on the really rough days where there's nothing positive to think about, they always support each other. It's really beautiful.' Married for seven years after first meeting during their freshman year at Azusa Pacific University ('I knew I'd kick myself,' John recalled, 'if I didn't ask her out'), Jordan insists now that she can't imagine going through cancer without John, a self-confessed Pokémon and Dungeons & Dragons fanatic. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories 'He's been such a rock,' she said of her husband, who has become her full-time caregiver. 'I know I can count on him no matter what. He's really funny and such a nerd.' After Jordan was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer in 2023, the couple said the disease progressed to stage 4 after they had already spent months trying get the necessary authorization for surgery from their health insurance company. 'That,' admitted Jordan, who is currently undergoing chemo therapy and will be undergoing surgery to remove the initial tumor in early June, 'was so hard to hear.' But the hardship also brought the couple — who often finish each other's sentences — closer. 'No matter what we go through, so many personal struggles and financial difficulties, we just keep getting tied tighter and tighter together,' said John. Jordan agreed, adding: 'We've definitely had our low points and, over the past two years, we've argued more than we ever have out of sheer exhaustion. But we've never gone to bed angry.' The ceremony was set into motion by the Chicago-based nonprofit Wish Upon a Wedding, which Jordan learned about through one of the numerous cancer support groups she's involved with. The organization helps throw free weddings and vow renewals to couples who are facing a terminal illness or a life-altering health circumstance. Since 2009, they have provided more than 300 ceremonies around the nation by working with local wedding industry professionals who donate everything from catered food and wedding attire to a venue, videographers and DJs. 'When you're going through a tragedy, you just need someone to walk into your darkness and do something nice for you," the group's executive director, Lacey Wicksall, said. "And that's what we're here to do — to just provide a respite in the middle of the storm.' More than 20 vendors worked together and donated their services for the Grooms' event this month, including Generation Tux, which has provided nearly 200 tuxedos for Wish Upon a Wedding's ceremonies over the past three years. 'Everyone deserves to celebrate love and their love story,' said Generation Tux's vice president, Chris Lorenzo, who outfitted John in his hunter green-colored tuxedo. 'And they should get to do that in style regardless of their situation, especially couples facing life altering circumstances.' The nonprofit's mission of bringing some much-needed cheer into the lives of those grappling with terminal illnesses was hardly lost on the Southern California-based wedding planner and officiant for the vow renewal ceremony, both of whom are cancer survivors. 'It's very easy to go to a dark place when you have a serious diagnosis,' said lead planner Penelope Lopez-Contreras of Events LC. 'Helping them celebrate their love surrounded by their loved ones is a great way to continue the fight.' 'As a leukemia survivor, I know what the battle is like and how dark it can be," added officiant Danny Bardales. "That's why I'm here and honored to give back.' The ceremony and after-party, the grateful couple said, was just what they need to get them ready for their next challenge: Jordan's upcoming major surgery at City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment center in Southern California, to remove her original tumor. 'I'm still not out of the woods,' Jordan said. 'But our outlook is a lot brighter than it was a year ago.' Read the original article on People
New York Times
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘We Are Gathered' Promises to Love, Honor and Cherish
When JaDonna Harris and Marquian Harris married in 2015, they did it alone, before a justice of the peace. As their 10th anniversary approached, they contemplated a do-over that would include friends and family. But the cost was an issue, as was agreeing on a venue. Then JaDonna Harris received an email from Arena Stage. An upcoming play was looking for real couples interested in getting married or renewing their vows. She and her wife replied immediately. 'We were like, this is kismet,' JaDonna Harris recalled. That play, 'We Are Gathered,' is a new work by Tarell Alvin McCraney that began Friday, overlapping with Washington's World Pride festivities. A celebration of love, each performance will culminate with what Arena Stage is calling 'Love Takes Center Stage,' an immersive experience in which one or more couples will join the actors for a real marriage ceremony or vow renewal. One of the stars, Craig Wallace, has been ordained. Over the course of the show's 30 scheduled performances, several dozen couples will participate. After each show, Arena Stage will hold a reception with cake, champagne and dancing. The Harrises can't wait. 'We are happy to celebrate queer love, to celebrate the love in general all over the world and everybody's ability to find a person that they are attached to,' JaDonna Harris said. 'That's all that matters.' McCraney began to dream up 'We Are Gathered' during World Pride in Sydney, Australia, in 2023. A theater there was staging a revival of his 2012 play 'Choir Boy,' a drama about a young gay man at an all-Black preparatory school. McCraney admired the production, but he wished that the play, which deals with anti-gay prejudice, didn't feel quite so relevant. He decided that by the time the next World Pride came around, two years later, he would offer actors a script that felt more playful, more joyful. In searching for a subject, McCraney, now 44 and the artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, kept returning to the idea of marriage. When he was growing up, marriage wasn't available to gay men, but a 2015 Supreme Court decision had changed that. Now friends were asking him why he wasn't married and he was beginning to ask that question of himself. Recent opposition to gay rights and transgender rights — including book bans and a Florida law nicknamed 'Don't Say Gay' — had made that question feel more urgent. 'Those things were happening pretty regularly and beginning to remind me there isn't a lot of time and nothing is promised,' he said. 'I decided, OK, I'm going to find out what this means to me.' 'We Are Gathered,' a love story between W. Tre (Kyle Beltran), an architect, and Free (Nic Ashe), a musician, is one answer. What begins as an anonymous assignation in a dark park becomes a serious relationship. But owing to W. Tre's reservations, the knot stays untied. I visited rehearsal on a Saturday afternoon last month. As McCraney watched from a monitor (he was in Los Angeles), Beltran stood center stage in character and welcomed the audience. 'I'm inviting you to witness, to witness me here,' he said. The director Kent Gash, dressed in black, with rainbow high-tops, walked over to Beltran, asking him to adjust his body position and gesture. 'I think that just includes everybody more specifically,' Gash said. Inclusion is at the heart of the play, which is why Tiffany Fulson, Arena Stage's community engagement producer, and Hannah Viederman, the artistic producer, were seeking out real couples via emails, a newsletter and targeted ads on social media last month. So far they have vetted about 50 couples, straight and gay, young and old, local and far-flung. 'We've been really totally surprised by the great diversity of people that have showed up and said, I feel like this play in this moment is really speaking to me,' Viederman said. 'Every single couple that we've talked to has demonstrated to us that their love is deserving of having a place onstage.' In addition to learning his lines, Wallace became ordained via an online application approved by the District of Columbia. 'As an actor I'm responsible for telling the story, but as somebody that's officiating a wedding I'm responsible for their union,' he said. 'It's a step beyond what I usually do onstage.' He described himself as both anxious and excited about this extra role. 'If I blow a monologue one night, I have the matinee to get it right,' he said. 'I don't have the matinee to get their marriage right.' But the stress is worth it. Wallace and his partner of 30 years were married in January. They did it for legal reasons, but Wallace found himself overcome with emotion. He hopes that the participating couples will feel the same. 'I can't wait to see the looks on their faces,' he said. 'I can't wait to see them actually stand before 800 people and profess their love to each other.' Gash isn't quite sure what to expect. 'We're going to be discovering a great deal each night,' he said the week before performances began. McCraney has already discovered plenty. Before the writing and rehearsing, he was dismissive of weddings. They seemed like pointless displays of opulence. Now, he feels differently. 'This commitment is sacred and essential and a human right,' he said. 'It is about a community coming to witness people who have made a decision to be together forever and that's powerful.' Theater also draws its power from community, from witnessing. And for McCraney, that makes 'We Are Gathered' consummate theater. 'We always hope that we come in, and through our dreaming together, we leave different,' he said. The marriages make that real. Whether marriage equality will remain legal is an open question. Though the play was written before the 2024 election, it is being staged after, when queer and transgender people continue to be the target of hate crimes as well as policies and executive orders that seek to erode their rights. This has not escaped the cast and creative team. The play is both a romance and a political act. 'I hope it prompts us all to think that the commitment to loving someone belongs to all of us,' Gash said. That political aspect was appealing for Ashe, who appeared in 'Choir Boy' on Broadway and is a longtime collaborator of McCraney's. To perform in the play would be to perform a civic duty, with delight. 'It feels like an act of rebellion,' Ashe said. 'When you hear 'rebellion,' you think, holding up signs, raising fists. But the rebellion in this show is actually the joy. That these characters can laugh and love is rebellion enough.'
