Monday, February 11, 2008

my heart goes out to this family...

this was in the news this morning:

"It was the first dance of a marriage that was not to be.

Kim Sjostrom and Teddy Efkarpides had been married for less than an hour on Jan. 19 when the bride crumpled in her husband's arms during a rendition of a Greek song that means simply, "Love Me." At 36, Sjostrom was dead from heart disease.

The couple was married three years to the day after their first date. Sjostrom had wanted a real-life version of the film, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which played in the background as friends fixed her hair and makeup before the ceremony.

The wedding was a project at Davie Elementary School, where Sjostrom taught first grade. Fellow teachers provided the wedding gown, the flowers, decorations and one of them, an ordained minister, performed the ceremony.

Sjostrom carried blue and white flowers during the ceremony -- the colors of the Greek flag. As they exchanged vows, Efkarpides, a 43-year-old carpenter and Navy veteran, wept with happiness.

The joyous mood of the celebration was soon transformed when Sjostrom complained of being lightheaded during the couple's first dance.

Efkarpides thought his wife, a diabetic, needed sugar. She collapsed.

Efforts to revive her by wedding guests, paramedics and doctors at a nearby hospital all failed. "