Healing Hearts…UH St. John Chaplain Makes Dream Come True in Hospital Chapel

Less than 18 months after the Rev. Dr. Buckley Wilford provided spiritual comfort for Linda Lowery’s dying mother in the Intensive Care Unit at University Hospitals St. John Medical Center, he united Linda with her lifelong partner in marriage.

Lowery could never forget the UH St. John Medical Center chaplain who had come to see her 87-year-old mother and prayed with the family back in 2023. When she spotted him at the hospital during her fiancé’s recent hospitalization, she asked the chaplain if he would visit him. Terry Eden, who had been diagnosed with cancer, had been admitted with cardiac issues and other complications. The couple had just obtained their marriage license on Valentine’s Day, but Eden’s unexpected hospitalization interrupted their wedding plans, which he noted were “28 years in the making.”

When Lowery saw the chaplain she admired, she believed it was divine intervention. Would he marry them?

“To me in my heart, it was God guiding us,” she said.

Lowery thought they would exchange vows at Eden’s bedside, but Preacher Buck had a better idea. The couple was brought to the chapel off the lobby of UH St. John Medical Center. Before the chaplain –surrounded by many of the five children and seven grandchildren they share, as well as a dozen UH St. John caregivers – they became husband and wife.

“I was on Cloud 9 that I could get married in the chapel,” Lowery said. “Him marrying us, it was like my mom was with me that day. It made it more special for all of us.”

Preacher Buck was happy he could officiate the ceremony.

“There were tears in the crowd, and the couple enjoyed it and held each other closely,” the chaplain noted.

Lowery could not have been more grateful to UH St. John’s caregivers for making possible a wedding that was far more memorable than the original courthouse ceremony they had planned.

“It was amazing what all of you did for us,” Lowery said. “It was a blessed day.”