Mark Thomas of Greensboro, NC, had spent five weeks hooked up to a ventilator at Cone Health’s Green Valley Campus battling the coronavirus. During this time, he had zero contact with his family, including his wife of 18 years, June.

Before Mark entered the hospital, he was busy helping his family prepare for the upcoming August wedding of his daughter, Kayla. Unfortunately, Mark was not removed from the ventilator until the day before Kayla’s wedding, making it impossible for him to attend the ceremony, let alone walk his daughter down the aisle.

That’s when the staff at Green Valley got busy, determined to find a way to help Mark be present with his daughter on her big day. The staff had been in daily contact with June during Mark’s time at Green Valley, so they were well aware of Kayla’s upcoming nuptials. “He needed the opportunity to connect to his family,” said Brent McQuaid, chief medical officer at Green Valley.

When mark realized there was a chance he could at least FaceTime his daughter during the ceremony, he worked hard to make sure he was strong enough to speak when the time came.

Besides the hospital staff, June was the only other person aware that Mark was planning on joining the ceremony via FaceTime. Minutes before she and her then-fiancé Seth Hayes exchanged their vows, Kayla was stunned when she was handed the phone and heard her mother say “Kayla, your daddy wants to read you something.”

A few months before contracting COVID, Mark had written a letter to his daughter. Sporting a dress shirt, bowtie, a boutonniere, and a new pair of reading glasses purchased by the nursing staff, he called and read the sweet words he had written to his daughter.

June told the local Greensboro paper “There wasn’t a dry eye within miles.” The call helped June get through the day a little easier without her husband by her side. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was walk down the aisle without my husband,” she said.

On being surprised by her dad’s call, Kayla said “It was just unexpected, and it made the day more special and memorable.” Mark was fighting hard for a long time and June said the family came real close to losing him, so having him participate in Kayla and Seth’s wedding was extra special.

After the ceremony, Mark was passed around to all the family and friends present, where well wishes were shared for the first time in five weeks.

“It was like a reunion. Everybody was saying ‘We’ve been praying for you,’” June said. Of the staff at Green Valley, June says, “I owe them my life. Almighty God has got their hands. They worked a miracle with my husband.”