STAY CONNECTED: Have the stories that matter most delivered every night to your email inbox. Subscribe to our daily local news wrap.
By Canadian Press

Despite war, hurricane, man finally sees brother’s wedding

Oct 31, 2017 | 11:56 AM

PENNDEL, Pa. — A war kept Wayne Wood’s brother from attending his first wedding, and a hurricane briefly derailed the secret plans for his second, but the 84-year-old has finally said “I do” again — this time with his unsuspecting brother serving as best man.

The brother, Gordon Wood, told the Bucks County Courier Times he had been hoping for a while that Wayne Wood would marry his girlfriend of 2 1/2 years, Joyce Mary Garren. He had been unable to attend his younger brother’s first wedding because he was serving on a submarine in the Korean War.

Gordon Wood, 86, had pushed repeatedly for an answer on the possibility of nuptials.

“I kept asking him,” he said.

But Wayne Wood stayed tight-lipped, replying only, “Soon.”

The younger Wood and his new wife live in Lake Placid, Florida, but they devised a ruse to marry in Pennsylvania while visiting the elder Wood and his wife, Joan Wood. With the help of local court clerks, the ceremony was scheduled for September. Then Hurricane Irma hit, and the couple were forced to stay home and deal with the aftermath.

“We were all worried about them,” judicial clerk Mary Ann Rink said.

The pair finally arrived for their visit last week. On Monday, the bride-to-be said she needed to pick something up at a Bucks County courthouse. Then, Wayne Wood stunned his older brother by asking him to stand by his side for an on-the-spot wedding.

“I just can’t believe it,” Gordon Wood said. “I think it is fantastic.”

Decades after missing out on the first wedding, he teared up as he noted, “I have never seen him happier.”

___

Information from: Bucks County Courier Times, http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press