News

Rehoboth Beach Couple Marries at Beebe Medical Center Chapel in midst of Storm

02/15/10

"Paul Timmons and Marisol Alarcon had decided that February 11, 2010, was to be their wedding day. And even as the Mid-Atlantic was plummeted by one of the worst snowstorms anyone could remember, the couple focused on their wedding day.

We knew we wouldn't make it to the Justice of the Peace in Wilmington, says Mr. Timmons, whose mother Donna Miller, was waiting for them. So, we had to figure out something else.

Mr. Timmons, a personal trainer and owner of the Firm Fitness Center in Rehoboth Beach, and Ms. Alarcon and several friends at the fitness center talked about options. With the local Justice of the Peace office closed, their choices were limited. It was then that friend and client Mark Diehl, whose wife Holly Diehl is an assistant physical therapist with Beebe Medical Center, thought of Beebe's Chaplain Keith Goheen.

We called up Keith and he said sure,' Mr. Timmons said. We didn't want to change the day.

Mr. Timmons was born at Beebe Medical Center, is from a local family, and thought that it would be wonderful to be married at Beebe. Chaplain Goheen said he didn't know whether there had ever been a wedding at the hospital.

So Thursday morning, as roads were just being cleared from Wednesday's blizzard, the couple arrived at Beebe Medical Center for the impromptu ceremony. Chaplain Goheen gathered the couple in front of the stained-glass wall hanging in the small chapel and opened his book of religious services. Mr. Timmons and Ms. Alarcon smiled at each other and the ceremony began. Attending were: friend and Cardiac Surgeon Fernando Garzia, MD; Mrs. Diehl: Chief Physician Assistant, Cardiac Surgery Brian McCarthy, PA-C, and Physician Assistant, Cardiac Surgery Kelly Felix, PA-C.

We are not a conventional couple, Ms. Alarcon says. How we met, how he proposed, it has all been unique.

Ms. Alarcon met Mr. Timmons five years ago when she started working out at his gym. He proposed to me when we were in an argument. It caught me by surprise.

The couple headed for a romantic honeymoon in New York over Valentine's Day weekend.

Mr. Timmons is a supporter of Beebe Medical Center and its Tunnell Cancer Center.
On July 17, 2006, he made a 15-mile, solo swim from Cape May to Cape Henlopen to increase awareness of cancer and the treatment offered by the Beebe Medical Center cancer program, and to raise money for it. He completed the swim in 7 hours and 14 minutes. At the time, his 79-year-old grandfather Ray Wilson of Rehoboth Beach was being treated for lung cancer.

He's doing great, Mr. Timmons said after the wedding. We see each other all the time.
The cozy wedding took just five minutes as outside the morning sun shined down on the newly fallen snow.

Caption: Marisol Alarcon and Paul Timmons were married at Beebe Medical Center

Caption: Chaplain Keith Goheen leads the wedding ceremony in Beebe Medical Center's small chapel.

Caption: Those at the wedding were, from left to right, Chaplain Keith Goheen, Holly Diehl, Paul Timmons, Marisol Alarcon, Fernando Garcia, MD, Kelly Felix, PA-C and Brian McCarthy, PA-C.

Beebe Medical Center is a not-for-profit community medical center with a charitable mission to encourage healthy living, prevent illness, and restore optimal health with the people residing, working, or visiting in the communities we serve. For more information, please visit us online at www.beebemed.org


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