N.Y. fire chaplain helps Toronto bride after crane collapse

[spaminator]

N.Y. fire chaplain helps Toronto bride after crane collapse
Gina Cherelus, Reuters
First posted: Friday, February 05, 2016 12:13 PM EST | Updated: Friday, February 05, 2016 06:01 PM EST
NEW YORK - Many brides cope with surprises on their wedding day, but Nesh Pillay was in for a doozy.
Dressed in a white sheath dress, the 25-year-old who works in public relations was getting her hair done with her sister at a downtown Manhattan salon when she felt the ground shake and heard an enormous crash as a construction crane collapsed.
The crash killed one person and injured at least three, drawing dozens of New York City police officers and firefighters to the scene.
"We could hear the bar shake. It was just scary cause things have been scary since 9/11," said Pillay's sister, 21-year-old Kuvanya, as they stood blocks from City Hall, wondering how they would make it through the debris to the wedding on time.
Feeling sympathy for the Toronto native, a New York Fire Department chaplain wrapped Nesh Pillay in a protective firefighter's coat and walked the sisters and their mother through the disaster site to City Hall.
Bride-to-be Nesh Pillay, 25, is assisted by New York City firefighter Chaplain Ann Kansfield after a crane collapsed near the beauty salon where she was having her hair done in downtown Manhattan in New York, on Feb. 5, 2016. (REUTERS/Gina Cherelus)

N.Y. fire chaplain helps Toronto bride after crane collapse | Canada | News | To

 

[Curious Cdn]

That is a very cool and totally New York moment. Horray for the NYFD, once again!

 

[spaminator]

Meet the Toronto bride from the crane collapse wedding
By Maryam Shah, Toronto Sun
First posted: Saturday, February 06, 2016 05:14 PM EST | Updated: Saturday, February 06, 2016 07:41 PM EST
Nesh Pillay had every minute of her wedding day in New York planned down to the last detail.
Going viral for being the silver lining of an urban tragedy was definitely not on the schedule.
The 25-year-old was busy getting her hair done in a salon on Friday when a nearby construction crane collapsed, killing one man and injuring others.
Pillay’s family thought it was an earthquake at first. Salon staff joined Pillay’s sister outside — tears flowed as the gravity of the situation sunk in.
Wedding details be damned — now a shaken Pillay, a public relations professional from Toronto, just wanted to get to her waiting fiance at the Tweed courthouse.
At first, police cordoned off the area and no one was allowed to leave. Pillay was stuck in the salon.
Emergency crews then began evacuating people.
Pillay threw on her white wedding dress and walked out. Rev. Ann Kansfield from the New York fire department wrapped a jacket around her.
It was an image news photographers at the scene could not resist.
“I get that image,” Pillay told the Sun on Saturday. “Right away a few people start to follow us and ask questions.”
The fire department chaplain held her hand and made her feel comfortable. She also began walking Pillay toward the courthouse, to meet her fiance.
“Along the way, I told her I was concerned about time,” Pillay recalled. “She said ‘I’m a chaplain, I could marry you (and your fiance).’”
Pillay realized it was “just perfect.”
At the courthouse, Pillay said she just cried as she hugged her fiance.
“Because all I could think about was the fact that someone died,” she said.
But within five minutes, at the top of the stairs, Pillay and her fiance were married, thanks to the chaplain.
“There was a rush of polarized emotions but it was perfect,” Pillay said.
A day later, Pillay says she thought the wedding story would simply garner local headlines.
“You’d be surprised at how many people tried calling us (Friday) night,” she said, adding a media request even came in from India.
It was “kind of funny” going viral, at first.
But guilt quickly took over.
“It felt like our joy was triumphing over someone else’s sorrow,” she explained. “That’s been something we’ve been dealing with a little bit, thinking OK, maybe it’s good for people to see the happiness in this situation or trying to work through those feelings, because there are some weird feelings left.”
Meet the Toronto bride from the crane collapse wedding | Toronto & GTA | News |