Pandemic, stroke don’t keep Newton man from being with daughter at wedding

A father and daughter in Exeter were able to make sure that neither COVID-19 nor a stroke would stop them from being together at her wedding.The dining room of the Exeter Center was transformed for a wedding Friday, when, through a blur of smiles and tears, Jim White, of Newton, accompanied his daughter, Gina Weaver, down the aisle. The pandemic forced Gina and Travis Weaver to postpone their formal wedding last spring in New Mexico, where they live. Then, her father had a stroke, so with some help, they brought the wedding to him.”We’ve been engaged three years and had many plans on being able to have this day with Jim,” Travis Weaver said.The Exeter Center is helping Jim Weaver with rehabilitation to eventually move home with his wife. Staff members also helped Gina Weaver have the man she calls her champion at her side.”And dance with him!” she said. “Yeah, it was amazing.”The initial plan was to just get married in front of a justice of the peace. That’s when recreation director Minna Bauer said they would pull off a full wedding instead.”Who doesn’t want their father to escort them down the aisle?” Bauer said.The event was planned in four days.”We’ve been through so much this past year, especially being in a nursing home facility,” Bauer said. “To be able to do something like this means so much to us.””We were scrambling to get paperwork together and make it happen, and everyone was just so accommodating and helpful,” Gina Weaver said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding.”