- Shauna Varner was looking forward to having her beloved grandmother, Janis, read at her April 25 wedding.
- Grandma Janis lives at a senior care facility, which has had a no-admittance policy since mid-March.
- The team at Country Manor's Rapid Recovery & Aquatic Center in Sartell, Minnesota, came up with the idea to have the bride and groom visit outside a first-floor window.
- Emily Frericks, the facility's director of public relations and marketing, told Insider Janis was so excited that she said she didn't know if she would be able to sleep.
Shauna Varner knew she would be missing out on much of what she planned for her wedding day, but the one thing she couldn't give up was Grandma Janis.
Janis is a resident at Country Manor's Rapid Recovery & Aquatic Center in Sartell, Minnesota, and due to the coronavirus, the facility has been on lockdown with a no-admittance policy since mid-March.
To make sure that his daughter's day was as special as it could be, Varner's father, Jeff, contacted Emily Frericks, the director of public relations and marketing at Country Manor, ahead of the April 25 wedding.
He told Frericks that though his daughter's plans for a big beautiful wedding had been derailed, "the only thing that she requested was that Grandma Janis could still somehow be a part of her big day," he said.
Staff at the facility came up with the idea for the couple to visit Grandma Janis outside a first-floor window
Frericks checked on Janis the night before to see how she was doing and to tell her the plan for the next day. "She said she didn't think she would be able to sleep because she was so excited," she said.
On the day of the wedding, Frericks and her team helped Janis pick out the perfect dress and jewelry. Since their salon was closed, the team did it all themselves.
"The night before we did her hair, the morning of we did her makeup, and got her feeling her very best," she said. "It almost felt like it was her wedding day," she added.
When Varner arrived, the song "Marry Me" was playing, and Frericks saw the emotion in Janis' eyes. "It was emotional for me too," she said.
Though they had planned for Janis to do a reading from the window, it was difficult for the couple to hear. Instead, Frericks requested what Janis would have read so that they could record it and send it to the couple.
Frericks recorded a video of the visit because she knew that they were going to want to save this moment forever. Frericks herself is planning a wedding, and would have give anything to have her own grandmother, who recently passed, there. "My grandma was my best friend," she said.
Frericks wants to share the positive story with others, especially those in care facilities
"In facilities like ours, where we have extreme precautions, for our patients and their families it has been extremely difficult to be away from one another. We are six weeks into this and most likely going to be having to keep people apart for the foreseeable future because of the vulnerable population that we serve," Frericks said.
"We are living in very challenging times right now and I think that a feel good story can remind so many people that there is still a lot of love and light happening," she said.
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