Sushma Dwivedi Jindal was in the middle of getting an epidural when she found out that another couple at the New York hospital needed some help.
Brianna Doyle and Casey Walko, like Jindal and her husband Vivek, were about to have a baby. But they wanted to be married before that happened.
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The couple had gotten a marriage certificate the day before, but Doyle’s water broke early, upending their wedding plans.
“They had planned on getting married a few days later, and it was a few weeks before their due date, but the baby had other plans,” Jindal told Global News.
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In an effort to make their wish come true, staff had been searching for the hospital chaplain — but he wasn’t available.
That’s when Jindal, who is originally from Canada and lives in the United States with her family, told the anesthesiologist that she could marry the couple.
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Jindal had gotten ordained online a few years ago, and now runs The Purple Project, a wedding service for LGBTQ+ Hindu couples who often have trouble finding a pundit.
“I said, ‘I don’t know if this is weird or helpful, but I actually got ordained on the internet a few years back.'”
Within a few minutes, the plan was in motion — except by then, Jindal’s epidural had kicked in and she was unable to walk around.
Doyle and Walko came to her beside, instead.
The newlywed told Global News that nurses braided her hair and made a bowtie for her husband from hats for babies.
“And then I walked out into the hallway and the nurses are standing there in a row playing wedding bell music,” Doyle said.
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Someone brought flowers, while another person wrote a poem.
“It was a totally full of love room, as best as you could pull off in a hospital, after midnight on a Wednesday,” Jindal said.
About four hours later, Nayan Jindal was born.
Riley was born to Doyle and Walko a few hours after that.
The two moms are still in touch, Doyle explained, with Jindal, who is a second-time mom, giving her baby tips.
“She’s been giving me great advice, just encouraging me to hang in there,” she said. “She’s an amazing human being.”
It’s a labour story neither mom expected, and one the children will hear for years to come.
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But more than that, Jindal explained she hopes Nayan and his two-year-old brother Ashwin, understand the lesson behind the story.
“It was really just a great lesson my husband and I wanted to give to our children,” she said.
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“If you have the option to choose kindness and do something nice for someone else, take the option. It’s not as hard as you might think.”
As for the newlyweds, Doyle says they had planned a wedding with family and friends in the coming months — but now they’re not so sure.
“We really can’t top this.”
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