{"id":69700,"date":"2026-03-09T17:30:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/?p=69700"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:31:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:31:01","slug":"a-wedding-wish-fulfilled-at-samaritan-evergreen-hospice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/news\/a-wedding-wish-fulfilled-at-samaritan-evergreen-hospice\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wedding Wish Fulfilled at Samaritan Evergreen Hospice"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article\">\n\t<header class=\"header\">\n\t\t<span class=\"type\"><\/span>\t\t<h1>A Wedding Wish Fulfilled at Samaritan Evergreen Hospice<\/h1>\t\t<time>March 9, 2026<\/time>\n\t<\/header>\n\t<div id=\"block_4fd4a0dbfe6f30323c2450a304540b9f\" class=\"shs-block block-news-article entry-content\">\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n\n<p>AJ Pieper never imagined his first job at <a href=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/health-services\/all-services\/hospice\/hospice-house\/\">Samaritan Evergreen Hospice<\/a> would come full circle. Now a professional services coordinator, he first started working as a door screener during the pandemic. From his first day on the job, he felt something different about the hospice house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s such a small, tight-knit community,\u201d Pieper said. \u201cI fell in love with it right away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Years later, hospice became the setting for a day he\u2019ll never forget. Last summer Pieper\u2019s father became critically ill after a sudden infection. After weeks in the hospital, his dad was stable enough to relocate from Idaho to the valley. Shortly after arriving, his body started shutting down and he was admitted to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. He then moved to Samaritan Evergreen Hospice House where the focus shifted to comfort care. During this time, Pieper and his fianc\u00e9e, Dani Finlay, decided to marry quickly so his dad could be there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy dad\u2019s last wish was to see us get married,\u201d Pieper said. \u201cHe literally fought till the very end to make sure he got through the wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Day Built on Love &amp; Support<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With only days to plan, Pieper\u2019s colleagues stepped in to make it happen. They found a wedding cake, arranged flowers and turned the Hospice House family room into a wedding space. His supervisor even brought a camera to capture the special moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve only been in my current position since April,\u201d Pieper said. \u201cMy team\u2019s generous support made me feel like I\u2019ve been here for 10 years. It\u2019s something I\u2019ll carry with me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-X-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"AJ Pieper and Dani Finlay made sure their dog, Theo, was a part of their wedding day.\" class=\"wp-image-69711\" style=\"width:273px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-X-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-X-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-X-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-X-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-X-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-X-67x100.jpg 67w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-X-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">AJ Pieper and Dani Finlay made sure their dog, Theo, was a part of their wedding day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 8, was small and meaningful, filled with joy, gratitude and moments of grief. He still remembers the first hospice wedding he witnessed years ago while working, when a patient\u2019s last wish was to marry their partner. During his own ceremony, Pieper saw how his journey at hospice had returned in an unexpected way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hospice care team also played a vital role; the nurses managed medication so Pieper\u2019s dad could be present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFrom the moment we stepped into the house, it eased my worry about my dad,\u201d Pieper said. \u201cThey were all so caring and patient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The day wasn\u2019t easy, but Pieper is grateful it happened. It honored his father\u2019s wish and showed him the power of compassion in care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe care we received was incredible and I couldn\u2019t imagine my wedding day without my dad present,\u201d Pieper said. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly grateful that even after the ceremony and my dad\u2019s passing that the hospice team continued to offer support and resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<aside>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"301\" src=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-CO.jpg\" class=\"attachment-cta size-cta wp-post-image\" alt=\"AJ Pieper and his wife Dani Finlay celebrate their wedding with loved ones.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-CO.jpg 360w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-CO-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AJ-Pieper-Hospice-Wedding-CO-120x100.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/figure>\t\t<\/aside>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Years after working at Samaritan Evergreen Hospice, AJ Pieper returned to marry his fianc\u00e9e, ensuring his father could share their special day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":69694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_shs_workflow_notes":"","_shs_exclude_from_navigation":false,"_shs_promote_article_on_blogs":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"news-topics":[496],"news-types":[272],"services":[242],"specialty":[34],"class_list":["post-69700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","news-topics-community","news-types-news","services-hospice-palliative-care","specialty-hospice"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69700"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69719,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69700\/revisions\/69719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69700"},{"taxonomy":"news-topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topics?post=69700"},{"taxonomy":"news-types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-types?post=69700"},{"taxonomy":"services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/services?post=69700"},{"taxonomy":"specialty","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/specialty?post=69700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}