By SAM COOK
Published by news-press.com on October 9, 2003
Copyright 2003, The News-Press

Not your normal matrimony application.

But Abbott, 46, isn?t your normal matrimony applicant.

?I?m very happy,?? Abbott mouthed between tired smiles Wednesday. ?NowNot your normal matrimony application.

But Abbott, 46, isn?t your normal matrimony applicant.

?I?m very happy,?? Abbott mouthed between tired smiles Wednesday. ?Now, I?m going to get married.??

Wednesday?s transaction, completed inside an ambulance on Main Street behind the Lee County Administration Building in Fort Myers, ends a month of haggling and paves the way for Abbott and Ken King to marry.

The ceremony will take place at 8 p.m. Friday in Room 7110 of Lee Memorial Hospital?s Medical Intensive Care Unit.

Abbott has Lou Gehrig?s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. She is on life support and King said she doesn?t have long to live.

ALS, a fatal neuromuscular disease characterized by muscle weakening resulting in paralysis, has immobilized her from the neck down.

Because she is bedridden and survives on a ventilator, Abbott and King couldn?t qualify for a license by applying together on the second floor of the county building.

Lee County Clerk of Court Charlie Green said he sympathized with their plight but refused to bend the rules.

Green said if his office isn?t judicious when issuing marriage licenses it creates family disputes afterward.

Frustrated but by no means finished with his quest, King, encouraged by hospital social worker Madolyn Gingell, appealed Monday to Deputy Clerk of Court Mary Jo Robinson.

?I told him: ?If there was any way to transport her down here, we would be willing to take care of her,? ?? Robinson said. ?We?ll go downstairs, to the parking lot or whatever.??

King, 63, who works in The News-Press circulation department, paid $88.50 for the license Monday and filled out the application.

Robinson said Green OK?d the procedure, so all she needed was Abbott to verify the information and sign.

Gingell, a social worker for six years at Lee Memorial, took care of the rest.

?When we told Mary Jo we would do our best to get Alice there, then they compromised,?? Gingell said.

Co-worker Frank Cook said King?s persistence, Gingell?s tenacity and Abbott?s desire made the marriage dream a possibility.

?Three months ago, Alice was staring at the ceiling? and wondering about discontinuing life support, Cook said. ?This is what she wanted to live for.??

Gingell arranged for Ambitrans, a private ambulance, to pick up Abbott, a nurse and a respiratory therapist at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Her 45-minute round trip was like a scene from ?ER.??

?I kept an eye on the heart monitor and told Alice what to expect,?? nurse Trudy Berkowitz said. ?The ride was a little bumpy, but she handled it very well.??

While Berkowitz watched Abbott?s vital signs, respiratory therapist Ramona Cooper kept her alive with a ventilation bag.

The ambulance arrived downtown at 9:25 a.m. and a nervous Robinson crawled into the crowded vehicle.

?I verified her information with her,?? Robinson said.

Abbott nodded her head.

?I verified that she understood she was signing a marriage license,?? Robinson said.

Abbott nodded again.

?We placed the pen in her mouth and put the license in front of her face,?? Robinson said. ?She made her mark with that pen in her mouth.??

After Abbott marked her ?X,? Deputy Clerk of Court Danelle Keady and Gingell witnessed the document and Robinson signed off to make the marriage license official.

?I was amazed. It was like something you see on television,?? Robinson said. ?I was worried how alert she might be. But she was alert. She was great. It went a lot smoother than I imaged.??

King and Maryland resident Abbott met in an Internet pinochle game room two years ago.

King said the couple didn?t marry sooner because his divorce wasn?t final until July and Abbott was hospitalized last April. He tried Monday to get a license in Hendry County but was denied.

?She has been something special in my life and I really love her,?? he said.

Yet King said the exchange of vows Friday will be bittersweet because of Abbott?s declining condition.

?We?ll just make the best of it while we have it,?? he said. ?Just knowing she is my wife is enough for me.

?Whatever God gives us after Friday is extra.??