Georgia clinic helps couple celebrates 53rd wedding anniversary despite quarantine

Credit: AJC

Georgia couple celebrates 53rd wedding anniversary from a safe distance.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, people across the world have gotten creative when it comes to celebrating life's milestones: from drive-by graduations to a socially distanced birthday party for a 100-year-old woman.

In June, a Georgia couple celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary through the glass of a Braselton medical center.

As Lloyd and Florence Smee’s anniversary approached this year, Lloyd was diagnosed with kidney failure.

He was scheduled to start dialysis treatment at DaVita Braselton Dialysis on the couple's anniversary.

Due to added safety precautions during the COVID-19 outbreak, Florence Smee was not able to be by her husband’s side during his treatment.

So, the staff at DaVita helped arrange for the couple to still be able to be “together,” albeit with a window between them.

The staff members set up Lloyd Smee’s dialysis chair where he could look out the window and see his wife, where she sat shielded by an umbrella from the sun.

The couple, who first met in 1966 at a Dahlonega diner, were able to spend the day together — 53 years after they were wed.