When two wedding plans fell through, nurses at the Cleveland Clinic stepped in to make sure a dying father could walk his daughter down the aisle.
CLEVELAND — Courtney Coccaro had one non-negotiable for her wedding day: her father had to be there.
“He’s always been my hero,” Courtney said.
John Weidow, 55, of Pennsylvania, has been his daughter’s constant — her soccer coach, her role model, the man who taught her to hunt, to fish, and to see the good in people. For most of Courtney’s life, he was also a paramedic.
“There’s never been a time where we’ve walked past someone who needed help and he was never there to jump on it and be there for them,” Courtney said. “We have so many family friends back home who would call him when they were in distress and just needed someone to talk to and needed an ear and someone to give them just honest feedback and life advice. He was always that person.”
Now John is fighting for his own life, battling stage 4 melanoma that has spread to his brain.
When Courtney got engaged to Michael Coccaro, John welcomed him immediately — teaching him to fish, showing him how to change his oil, and stepping up as a father figure when Michael’s own dad got sick.
“Especially when my dad got sick, he was there for us,” Michael said.
The couple was set to marry May 30. But weeks before the wedding, doctors at Cleveland Clinic told the family that John might not make it that long. They rescheduled for May 10 in Pennsylvania. Then a blood clot sent John back to the hospital — and he would have missed that one too.
For Courtney, there was only one answer.
“I did not wanna have a wedding without him walking me down the aisle,” she said. “It was non-negotiable.”
So on May 17, with the help of Cleveland Clinic’s nursing staff, Courtney and Michael brought the wedding to John. Nurses pulled together chairs, decorations, and even a wedding cake. They found a photographer. They helped Courtney get changed into her gown. And as the sun set over Cleveland, John Weidow was wheeled onto the hospital rooftop to watch his daughter get married.
“Everyone came together and made it absolutely so special,” Courtney said. “It was gorgeous. It was beautiful. The sun came down perfectly.”
Michael said the staff went far beyond what anyone could have expected.
“They did a lot of stuff that they definitely didn’t have to,” Michael said.
For Courtney, the moment her father appeared on that rooftop is one she will never forget.
“It felt like I was in a dream,” Courtney said. “I felt like I was gonna wake up and it was not gonna be there. He was not gonna be at my wedding and everything was gonna be against us, but it felt, it felt almost like it wasn’t real. We both cried so much — so many happy tears.”
She said the outpouring of love from the Cleveland Clinic staff felt like something bigger than all of them.
“It was a miracle,” Courtney said. “There’s no other way to describe it. The goodness to see in people — you forget how much is there just based on what’s going on in the world. And having that kind of love shared in a room was absolutely spectacular.”
John is now home in Pennsylvania with his family. Courtney says they are making the most of every day — going on Jeep rides, planning fishing trips, watching movies together.
“We don’t just wanna sit in the house and watch TV,” Courtney said. “We wanna do as much as we can and get him out and make sure that we’re as happy as we can be.”
As for the future, Courtney and Michael say they hope to start a family soon. And if they have a son, his name will carry a piece of John.
“Dad, I love you with all of my heart and soul,” Courtney said.