Joyful Mom Joins Daughter's Vows From Behind Nursing Home Window

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Robyn Roberts-Williams visits her 89-year-old mom Dorothy Roberts every Sunday, chatting from opposite sides of a ground-floor window at the Isabella Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Washington Heights.

It is a form of communication that the coronavirus pandemic has forced upon so many families with parents in nursing homes over the past eight months.

However, her most recent trip to see her mother was no average visit – and not just because it was Roberts-Williams' 52nd birthday.

Standing in a small garden outside the senior care facility last Saturday, she married Tim Williams. Beside them stood eight of their family members and, inches away behind a window, Dorothy sat with an unfading smile of joy stretched across her face.

Robyn and Tim didn't initially plan to get married in a nursing-home garden, but the bride always knew she needed her mother to be there.

"It was an absolute priority. The only reason we held it there was so that she could be a part," Roberts-Williams, a long-time Harlem resident who now lives in New Jersey, told Patch.

"That day was my 52nd birthday and this is my first marriage. So for my mom to be there, my prayer has always been that. Even when she went to the nursing home, it was always that my mom would be at my wedding no matter what."

Robyn and Tim first planned to get married in the spring of 2021 in a more traditional wedding. However, when the plans got scrapped due to coronavirus, they decided to move it forward.

The idea to hold the ceremony at the Isabella Center came when restrictions were lifted slightly at the beginning of the summer and the family was allowed weekly 30-minute visits from behind the glass.

The garden window planted the idea.

"Once we saw the spot where we get to have the window visit, we said this would just be a perfect spot to have a small ceremony. A few people, efficient, a couple of family members, and that will be the end of that," Roberts-Williams said.

They shared the idea with Jessica Garcia-Robinson, the director of therapeutic recreation at the center. "When we presented the idea to her, she was elated, she was so excited," Roberts-Williams said.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple.

Administrators at the Isabella Center had to review the Department of Health regulations regarding visitations and also clear the ceremony with its parent company, MJHS Health.

In July, the family asked if they could do the ceremony in the center's garden on Oct. 10. They got the go-ahead at the beginning of September.

Roberts-Williams and the rest of her family had a little more than a month to plan the wedding.

"We literally planned everything. We didn't have a dress, we didn't have suits, we didn't have flowers, we didn't have anything," she said.

However, what helped the planning was a strong bond between the staff at the Isabella Center and the Roberts-Williams family. Dorothy has been a resident of the facility for 13 years.

"Her family is like our family," Garcia-Robinson, the center's therapeutic recreation director, told Patch. "It was honestly a privilege to have done this for them."

Tim's own mother was unable to make the trip from Florida and attend the wedding, a burden that he shouldered for his new wife.

"Even his own mom couldn't be there, but he agreed we could go ahead so that my mom could be there because he understood the vulnerability of that population and her own population," Roberts-Williams said.

"He wanted to make sure my mom saw we get married. Honestly it has been a lifelong prayer for my mom to be there, and of course over the years as her health declined, it remained a constant prayer, and then during the pandemic, forget it. It was just the goal to have her there.

"So to see her face there in the windows, and to have her be mentally present, have her be physically present, and just so excited. It was just amazing."

Before the pandemic, Roberts-Williams would help get her mother ready so they could attend church together. On the day of the ceremony, the Isabella Center staff took over the role of dressing Dorothy, and made sure to put on her makeup and pick out her favorite jewelry for the ceremony.

The Washington Heights community also showed up for the ceremony.

While there were only 10 people that participated in the garden ceremony, the streets around them came alive.

"There were people on the street, people in their cars, people outside their windows and apartment buildings, it was just incredible," Roberts-Williams said.

"There were only 10 of us in the garden, but the celebration around us was just amazing. All of that happened organically, we didn't plan for any of that to happen."