Terminally ill woman who wed in hospital dies
The terminally ill woman who married her longtime partner last week during a wedding ceremony in a Kingston hospital has died.
Susan Schultz died in her Hurley home on Wednesday, Aug. 22, six days shy of her 70th birthday, according to her obituary. Her wife, Lauriann Devine, was by her side, the obituary said.
The couple wed on Tuesday, Aug. 21, during a ceremony in the Intensive Care Unit at Health-Alliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston, where Schultz was receiving palliative care. The couple was surrounded by friends and hospital staff as they exchanged vows officiated by Ulster County Surrogate’s Court Judge Sara McGinty. Overhead was a huppah, a Jewish wedding canopy, created by hospital staff from a prayer shawl, bed sheets, four I.V. poles and craft supplies. Schultz was Jewish.
Prior to the ceremony, Devine shared the story of how the couple met through mutual friends at a dinner in New Paltz. They had been together for about 15 years and lived together for nine of those, she said. Devine said they had talked about marriage, but didn’t want to rush into it.
”It’s been a real balanced and loving relationship,” Devine said at the time. “We have our little bumps, but we’re able to work them out, and we’re very deeply in love.”
Schultz, according to Devine, was being treated at the hospital for polycystic kidney disease and chronic myeloid leukemia.
Schultz was to be cremated under the guidance of the Joseph V. Leahy Funeral Home in Kingston.