New York couple weds at border crossing so Canadian family can be part of the big day
Having first met 35 years ago on a ski slope, Karen Mahoney and Brian Ray figured they'd waited long enough to get married, and agreed to a very short engagement. Only one thing stood in their way: the closed U.S.-Canada border.
The couple lives in New York, but Mahoney's parents and 96-year-old grandmother live in Quebec. Before the pandemic, she was able to make weekly visits back home, but with the border closed, those trips came to an end. Mahoney and Ray set Sept. 25 as their wedding date, holding out hope that the U.S.-Canada border would reopen by that time, allowing Mahoney's family to travel to New York. When they realized this wasn't going to happen, their friend, a Border Patrol agent, stepped in with a suggestion.
He told the couple if they got married at the closed Jamieson Line Border Crossing between Burke, New York, and Athelstan, Quebec, Mahoney's family could watch from Canada. Mahoney told CBS News her grandmother was "extremely excited" to see her and "expressed to me later that to witness the happiest day of my life is a moment she would never forget." Mahoney and Ray still held their planned wedding as well, with Ray telling CBS News, "I got to marry the most beautiful woman in the world two days in a row."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Zimbabwe’s driving crisisUnder the Radar Southern African nation is experiencing a ‘public health disaster’ with one of the highest road fatality rates in the world
-
The Mint’s 250th anniversary coins face a whitewashing controversyThe Explainer The designs omitted several notable moments for civil rights and women’s rights
-
‘If regulators nix the rail merger, supply chain inefficiency will persist’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
‘One Battle After Another’ wins Critics Choice honorsSpeed Read Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, won best picture at the 31st Critics Choice Awards
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
