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More on KentOnline
A couple who experienced tragedies and then the worry of battling coronavirus realised their dream of getting married, with one hour's notice and in the nick of time before England's third lockdown.
Rosie and Jonathan Gill-Moss, from West Malling, exchanged their vows shortly after Boris Johnson announced the country was being shut down again.
It followed an unbelievable 12 months which saw father-of-one Jon almost lose his life to Covid.
The couple first forged a friendship in the midst of extremely tragic circumstances.
Rosie joined a bereavement group after husband Ben went missing during a scuba diving trip off the coast of Dover in March 2018.
His loss left her raising children Monty, Hector and Tabitha - then just six-months-old - single-handedly in Faversham.
Jon, who lived in Sutton Valence, had joined the same support network after losing wife Sarah to cancer - leaving him and young daughter Holly.
But in a cruel twist of fate, less than a year into their new romance, Jon caught coronavirus at the start of the pandemic last year and fell desperately ill.
After fighting the virus for a number of days at home he was rushed to hospital by ambulance where he was placed on a ventilator in intensive care.
Rosie and their families were warned by medics battling to save him that they must prepare for the worst.
But Jon - who credits a dictaphone Rosie had filled with messages from their children, friends and family, as the reason he fought back - eventually woke from his coma, or what the couple often refer to as his “long nap”.
The 43-year-old realised “how closely I did sail to the wind”.
He asked Rosie, 39, to marry him shortly afterwards during an emotional video call from his hospital bed.
He ended up spending six weeks in hospital.
The couple, who moved into a new home in West Malling at the end of last year following months of rehabilitation for Jon, had initially planned to get married the weekend before Christmas in front of a small group of family and friends.
But their ceremony was heartbreakingly cancelled at the 11th hour when Boris Johnson brought in Tier 4 restrictions in December, which pulled the plug on weddings in all but exceptional circumstances.
Rosie said: “That beacon of light that we had so, so looked forward to was blown out.
“The register office rang at 4.30pm and we were husband and wife by 6."
“But after the news I received in March that I may never see Jon again, it was just a minor blip in comparison.
“And watching the devastating losses so many have suffered this year, it was really just a small setback.”
Since Christmas the couple had been desperately trying to rearrange their day when talk of yet another lockdown began emerging.
So in a race against time, and just hours before new tougher restrictions were brought in at midnight on Monday, the couple, armed with face masks - but having forgotten wedding rings in the rush - dashed to get hitched after registrars at The Mansion House in Tunbridge Wells said they could marry them.
With close family watching via Facetime it was left to two best friends to serve as witnesses, who dropped everything and arrived in the casual clothes they were wearing when they received the call.
Rosie explained: “The register office rang at 4.30pm and we were husband and wife by 6.
“Not this time Boris, not this time” she joked.
With a full lockdown now in place, plans for a honeymoon or any post-wedding celebrations are firmly on hold.
Instead the couple say they have spent the first few days of married life celebrating with Champagne at home whilst restarting home-schooling for their three oldest children.
