THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9412300242
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Virginia Beach marriage commissioner G. Dewey Simmons Jr. has performed wedding ceremonies in airplanes, underwater in scuba gear and on Chick's Beach during a snowstorm.
He even joined a couple in holy matrimony with the bride in Virginia Beach and the groom on the phone in Saudi Arabia.
If you want to get married at 1 a.m. in a hot tub, on a cruise ship or the rooftop garden at the Chamberlain Hotel, Simmons is your man.
Even incarceration can't stop the marriage commissioner from joining together those whom the courts have rendered asunder. Simmons has performed two weddings at the state prison in Greensville County.
One of the three marriage commissioners in the city, the real estate broker and former city councilman was appointed by the Circuit Court judges in 1989. Simmons, 74, doesn't know how many weddings he has conducted in that time.
``Who counts?'' he asked. ``Sometimes, 15 or 20 a day. Start at 8 in the morning and go until 9 at night. I'm booked through next August.''
For couples who don't insist on an exotic locale, Simmons has a small wedding chapel in his office on West Great Neck Road. Pay your $30, tie the knot and live happily ever after. Simmons knows about the latter. He and his wife, Constance, have been married for 54 years. But there is a bit of sad irony.
The man who has joined so many in holy matrimony has watched Constance (``the most amazing woman I have ever known'') suffer debilitating health for several years. She had brain surgery to correct an aneurysm in 1980. After she made a remarkable recovery from that, she was felled by a stroke in 1990.
``She was in ICU and the doctor said it didn't look good, that she'd lost 90 percent use of her brain,'' said Simmons. ``They eventually took her off life support and put her back in a room and the doctor came to me and said it was time to decide on a nursing home.
``I said, `She's my wife, it's our home and that's where she'll return.'
``Her home is her nest, where she raised our children, where she feels best and knows the best.''
Simmons went on to say that despite being paralyzed on one side and forced to use a wheelchair, Constance now cares for herself, cleans the house, even folds the laundry.
``I come home some days and she has moved furniture around. Don't ask me how. At first, I was worried about leaving her alone during the day. I was concerned that she would have trouble with taking care of herself. I should have known better.
``This is the woman they said would be a vegetable after her stroke.''
The man who has joined hundreds of others in marriage and enjoyed 54 years with Constance has no formula for the ceremonies that he conducts.
``I don't read anything. Sometimes, the couple has something they've written. Usually I just stand up there and say whatever the spirit moves me to say. I'm bound by law to hear vows and make pronouncement.
``They call me a marriage commissioner, but that may be a misnomer. I can't make a marriage. Marriage is an affair of the heart. If I'm anything, I'm a wedding commissioner.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY EDWARDS
Marriage commissioner G. Dewey Simmons is a busy man: ``Sometimes,
15 or 20 a day,'' he says. ``Start at 8 in the morning and go until
9 at night. I'm booked through next August.''
by CNB