The (Massillon) Independent
By ERIN PUSTAY
Posted Nov 13, 2009
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Newlyweds Dawn and Zack Zeigler embrace in the chapel at Aultman Hospital immediately after being pronounced husband and wife by Pastor Terry Livengood.
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CANTON, OH — Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ... It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-5, 7-8.
Love is patient …
If Zack Ziegler had to wait another lifetime for the woman standing next to him at the altar, he would. He’d wait as long as he had to for the day he got to slip the ring on Dawn Selega’s finger.
So he waited.
For six weeks, he waited.
The day before Zack and Dawn were to be married, she fell extremely ill. On the eve of what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives, their fairy tale shattered.
Dawn was hospitalized with the swine flu. The illness gripped her so tightly that it not only stole the joy of the wedding day, it stole all the hope the future had to give.
Six months into Dawn’s pregnancy, the couple lost their child – a son, Zachary David Ziegler Jr. – to the illness.
“I was hard,” Zack said of the sleepless nights he spent by Dawn’s side, hoping against hope that she would fight and pull through. “It was really hard not to know what was going on and not know if she was going to be OK. … I felt like, half of the time, I was just lost.”
Love is kind …
Swine flu may have sapped Dawn’s strength and trampled her spirit, but it wasn’t going to steal that dream of marrying the man she loved.
That much was easy to see.
The nurses, physicians and staff at Aultman Hospital could see that these two were meant to be together. And it was they who decided to make that dream come true.
Because if anyone deserved to be happy, it was Zack and Dawn.
“We have seen her come through so much,” said Mia Baisell, director of the medical intensive care unit. “There were times when we almost lost her. We knew she wanted this more than anything so we did what we could to help.”
The nurses got together and purchased a white robe, white ballerina slippers and a small veil. They got flowers for the bride and groom, purchased a wedding cake and some punch and planned an intimate ceremony in the tiny chapel downstairs.
They made Dawn’s dreams come true – even if it wasn’t all that she had imagined.
“This was Zack and Dawn’s idea,” Biasell said. “We just wanted this to be their special day.”
And it was. Wednesday evening, Dawn got the wedding she never knew she dreamed of.
“Is my dad here?” Dawn asked when she reached the chapel door. “I want him to walk me down.”
With all the strength she could muster, she lifted herself out of the wheelchair and took her father’s arm.
Heart monitors and oxygen tanks were the train that flowed behind her as she stepped lightly down the short, narrow aisle. None of the steps were easy, but they were steps she was determined to take.
Because each one was a step closer to Zack.
Love always trusts, always hopes
Fighting through the loss of a child was only possible, Dawn said, because she clung to the dream of her upcoming wedding. Zack was the hope that pulled her through.
“I’ve waited 20 years to get married – I’ve always wanted to get married,” Dawn said. “He is everything to me. He’s the love of my life. He’s my soul mate.”
Dawn’s mother, Lori Selega, had come up from Columbus for the couple’s wedding last month and hasn’t yet returned home. She has spent every day in the hospital with her daughter, trying to give Dawn the courage and strength to fight and pull through.
“It was heart-wrenching,” Lori said of the last six weeks. “It was so emotional. I cried all the time.”
And Zack, he waited – patiently – for the love of his life to find the strength she needed to make it through their long-awaited wedding day.
“Zack spent every night by her side,” Lori said. “He made sure that there was always someone there with her.”
Zack stood by the love of his life even when his world turned dark.
But he also knew there was nothing he could have done.
Dr. Michael Krew, director of Perinatal Services at Aultman, said that the vaccines that could have saved the life of Dawn’s little boy were not available when she fell ill.
Today, mothers like Dawn have the hope they need in the form of the H1N1 vaccine.
“The fatality rate is eight times higher among pregnant women,” Krew said. “The vaccine is so important in every trimester. It’s just as safe as the regular vaccine.”
Across the county, supplies of the H1N1 vaccine are being delivered to hospitals, doctors and health departments that are working to get it out to the people who are most at risk of falling seriously ill from the swine flu. Pregnant women, infants and children are among the first to receive the vaccine.
“Nothing is 100 percent safe, but I strongly believe that this is very safe and it is something that should be done,” Krew said.
If for nothing else, the vaccine could help to preserve the kind of dreams that Dawn fought so hard to hold on to.
“As close as she was to death,” Krew said, “the fact that she is up and walking around and getting married is a testament to how strong she really is.”
Zack just smiles and admits that in the deepest parts of his heart, he knew how strong Dawn really is. He could feel it. He knew she would pull through and stand with him to say their vows.
Even if this wasn’t exactly how they imagined it, that wedding was everything they dreamed of because they had each other.
“She’s the love of my life,” Zack said. “I love her with all my heart.”
And this love, he believes, will never fail.
