Bride gets married in father’s hospital room days before he dies

HAMPTON, N.H. (WMUR) - A New Hampshire father’s final wish was to see his daughter get married, and his family made sure to make that happen, even after he was hospitalized.

The emergency department at Portsmouth Regional Hospital wasn’t the wedding venue that Heather Lindberg and John Spagnola had envisioned, but Heather’s father, 77-year-old Dana Lindberg, was worried he would miss her wedding.

The 77-year-old was battling a serious health crisis and ended up hospitalized.

“I gave him a big hug, and he said to me, ‘I may never get a chance to see you get married,’” Heather said.

“He said, ‘I don’t think I’m going home.’ In all the times, he’d been in the hospital over the last few years, he’d never said that,” John said.

So, Heather immediately got to work finding a dress and officiant: her brother, Nate Lindberg.

“Heather asked me Sunday night, ‘How quickly can you get a marriage officiant license?’” Nate said. “On Sunday night, I applied for it, paid the little fee, and I woke up to it in my email the next morning.”

Heather and John exchanged vows June 29 in a ceremony at her father’s bedside. In video of the ceremony, Dana can be seen smiling, singing and making jokes.

“He had this grin ear to ear. It was just so nice to see him like that because we hadn’t seen him like that in a long time,” the bride’s mother said.

“It just couldn’t have been more perfect,” Heather said.

Two days after the wedding, Dana died.

“He went out happy, knowing his little girl got married and was going to be taken care of by her wonderful husband,” Heather’s mother said.

The Lindberg family plans to hold a celebration of life for Dana in October, which is when he would have turned 78.