We waited. I was the first to arrive. The bride was the second. We waited for the groom. Others began arriving. Suddenly, we heard a siren. It was a Tennessee state trooper, going in a direction nobody we knew would be coming from. Then an ambulance, followed by a Sherriff’s deputy.
All went in that direction where we thought we had nothing to worry about. I began taking pictures of the unique venue for a wedding, a unique wedding.
This wedding was between two friends whom I’ve ridden with before. The three of us rode our motorcycles in a funeral procession a few months ago, along with dozens of others.
All at once, the same emergency vehicles came back and went a different direction, this time in the direction most of the people we knew were coming from. The bride began to call her groom’s phone, his daughter’s phone. ”He should be here by now,” she thought. Nobody was answering.
Nobody was answering because the emergency was that the groom was in a motorcycle wreck.
The bride left in a flash to rush to his side. A few of the others stayed behind because they didn’t want to crowd the scene. We gathered up and prayed.
After a few minutes, I decided I might need to go to the scene and pray with people and bring God’s peace to the situation.
Jerry Jeter is thepastor of Pleasant View Baptist Church, Clarksville.
The groom was life-flighted to Vanderbilt.
We, his friends and I, began to take care of the belongings of the bride and groom while she left to go to the hospital to be by his side.
A kind store owner allowed us to put the bride’s motorcycle in her shop. The wrecker drove off with the groom’s bike on the back. Nobody knew where they were taking it or how to contact the people about it.
The first good news I had was when one of the officers told me he was awake and responsive before they flew him out.
The second bit of good news I had was when I pulled the wrecker over to get information about where to pick the bike up. The bike wasn’t in too bad of shape.
I rode to the hospital to be there for support.
I was able to see him, talk with him and his daughter. He is going to be okay.
The bride arrived afterward. (I know all the short cuts to the hospital because I’m there all the time.) When she saw him, he told her he wanted to go ahead and get married. He said the wreck shouldn’t cause their marriage to be put on hold.
Seven hours after the wedding was supposed to start, that couple was married in the ER at Vanderbilt Medical Center.
I might always refer to this as the “miracle wedding.” B&R — Jeter is the state chaplain for Tennessee’s F.A.I.T.H. Riders.
