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|  Grandfather's love brings wedding ceremony to Fairlawn On June 19th, Eric Eastabrooks married Monika Desai in an outdoor gazebo on the side lawn of Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital. And even though neither the bride nor the groom was a Fairlawn patient, the couple hadn't a doubt that the hospital was the best place to exchange their vows.
Eric has always been extremely close to his grandfather. When he played football - first for Pop Warner and later for Bartlett High School - Mr. Laramie would take him to every practice and every game. And each year, when school got out, he would meticulously prepare his backyard pool so Eric and his four younger siblings would have a place to wile away the warm summer days. But Raymond Laramie - or "Baba" as his grandchildren call him - was never "just my grandfather" said Eric. "He was a constant presence in my life - a wonderful role model and a strong example of how to be a good man. He, my grandmother, and my mother (until she died seven years ago) were a triumvirate in raising me. They all contributed, and there was always an even flow of delegation."
So this past September, when Eric and his fiancée, who were then living in Chicago, began planning their wedding, he had but one request - that his grandparents be included. Their decision was to have a ceremony at the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts and then have a "destination wedding" somewhere in the Caribbean later this year. But last November Lorraine Laramie, Eric's grandmother, passed away. Still, the couple forged ahead with their plans, setting June 19th as their wedding date. Then, two weeks before the wedding, Raymond Laramie had a stroke. During his hospitalization, Eric, who now works as a software developer in Boston, visited his grandfather every evening. A week before the ceremony, when it became clear that Mr. Laramie wouldn't be able to attend the Wayside Inn ceremony, Eric and Monika came up with the idea of exchanging their vows at Fairlawn. So, on that mid-June morning as 40 guests gathered under the Fairlawn gazebo, Raymond Laramie sat quietly yet proudly as Eric and Monika became husband and wife. And according to Eric, where the wedding took place was of little consequence as long as his grandfather was there. "Everything we are doing on this day is to honor my grandparents and to let my grandfather know what they have meant to us," he said. As part of the ceremony, the bride and groom spoke to the example Lorraine and Raymond Laramie set during their 56-year marriage. "They were utterly devoted to each other and their family. They were a constant comfort to one another," said Eric. "Growing up, I always knew they were there for each other, their children, and their grandchildren. If Monika and I can have half the marriage they had, we'll be better off than most people." Deeply moved by his grandson's unwavering efforts to include him in the wedding ceremony, Raymond Laramie has similar feelings about Eric and his new granddaughter-in-law: "My relationship with Eric has always been very special, and my wife and I always wanted the best for him. I wish him and Monika all kinds of happiness and children as good as Eric always was." | ||||||||||
