FIRE DEPARTMENT CHAPLAIN SAVES WEDDING DAY
Nesh Pillay and her fiancé had planned a small wedding at New York City Hall with only close family and friends. Any chance of the ceremony remaining low- key was crushed when a 172- metre crane violently collapsed outside the salon where she was getting her hair done Friday. “It’s an unlucky start to a lucky marriage,” the Toronto native said. Pillay, 25, didn’t feel the impact of the collapse, but her sister Kuvanya was sitting in the salon’s back room when she felt the floor rumble. “I felt like a hole was going to come out of the floor,” the 21- year- old said. “It sounded like thunder, but it wasn’t raining.” The sisters and their mother were stuck in the salon for two hours, then were forced to leave because of a gas leak. Pillay slipped on her wedding dress and walked out into the street. Rev. Ann Kansfield, a New York Fire Department chaplain, rushed over and put her jacket on the bride’s shoulders. The chaplain assured Pillay she would get married today — because she would perform the ceremony. Pillay said the chaplain walked her family over to the steps of New York City’s Department of Education, where fiancé Aaron Vanderhoff, 27, was waiting with family and friends. Kansfield then fulfilled her promise and married the couple.