Wedding bells ring out at Shawville Hospital

2018-05-292018-06-01 Liz Draper 201 Views topstory

Dixie Atkinson and John Mitchem are all smiles after tying the knot during a ceremony at the Shawville Hospital on May 4. Although John is still in the hospital, the newlyweds hope to head down to the Caribbean for a honeymoon in the coming months.

Chris Lowrey
SHAWVILLE May 4, 2018
After 14 years together, Dixie Atkinson and John Mitchem decided to tie the knot in an unorthodox way – in a ceremony at the Shawville Hospital on May 4.
Dixie, 70, and John, 71, decided to take the plunge after having a candid conversation with John’s doctor.
He pointed out that Dixie would have little to no say in John’s end-of-life care if they weren’t married.
Needless to say, there were also practical reasons to get married aside from the fact that they are in love.
A bad case of pneumonia put John in the hospital. On top of that, he’s currently fighting two different forms of cancer.
“We always talked about it,” Dixie said about tying the knot. “So we just kind of looked at each other on the Wednesday and said ‘Let’s get married’ and by Friday we were married.”

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