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COUNCIL BLUFFS — Kelley Agard vowed this week to stand by Rick White in sickness and in health, and she meant it.
Agard, who married White here on Monday, plans to donate a kidney to him Wednesday at the Nebraska Medical Center.
White suffers from polycystic kidney disease, which has run through his family and killed his mother and sister. His kidneys are swollen and covered with cysts.
Agard said she pledged about five years ago that she would donate a kidney to him. They were only friends at the time, they said, and not romantically involved.
However, their relationship progressed, as did his disease. Diagnosed with the kidney problem close to 20 years ago, White has experienced increasing discomfort, including muscle cramps, nausea, fatigue, pain and itchiness.
The removal of Agard's kidney is set for 8:30 a.m., and placing that organ inside White is scheduled for about 9:45 a.m.
The couple, from Red Oak, Iowa, chose the historic Squirrel Cage Jail here as their wedding spot.
The circular jail, built in 1885, last held prisoners in 1969. It hadn't hosted a wedding in Ed Ritchie's four years as jail and museum manager, but another is scheduled there for later this year.
White, 51, said they selected the Squirrel Cage Jail because it's “really quirky and funny, like us.”
Agard, who works in emergency room admissions at Creighton University Medical Center, said she liked the jail as a symbol that she was “finally caught.” She had never been married.
The timing was right for the wedding, the couple said, in part because White's daughter from his previous marriage, Cassandra Oosterbaan, and her husband, Brian, could get time off and come from Tucson, Ariz., to serve as witnesses.
The wedding was no joke, Agard and White said, nor did they do it for insurance purposes. “We didn't get married as some kind of stunt,” White said.
They paid a $50 rental fee at the Squirrel Cage Jail. White arrived first Monday afternoon.
When Agard, 46, drove up with White's daughter and son-in-law, White covered his eyes so he wouldn't see the woman who would soon be his bride. He handed her a bouquet of daisies around a doorjamb.
Agard walked to the left around the circular jail, White to the right, and they met at the back of the jail, where Mark Eveloff, a district associate judge in Iowa, awaited them.
Agard, wearing high heels and a white dress, wept slightly. “We are gathered here today ...” Eveloff began, and worked through a brief, traditional recitation of vows.
“Richard, will you agree to take Kelley for your lawfully wedded wife?” he asked.
The sun shone through the barred windows, and their words echoed off concrete and metal.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Eveloff said. They exchanged little kisses and hugged. White, who wore black slacks and a gray shirt with a tie, brushed a tear away and signed a document for Eveloff.
This week of major steps has included big ups and one down. Agard's dog, Murphey, close to 16 years old, had to be put to sleep Tuesday after suffering a stroke a few days ago.
“She had kidney disease,” Agard said. “That's the ironic part.”
But Agard and White looked toward a new day, one in which White would no longer suffer the effects of deteriorating kidneys.
“I'm excited,” Agard said.
White, a pediatric home health nurse, said he and his wife appreciate what the nurses and surgeons at the Nebraska Medical Center are about to do for them.
“There's no guaranteed outcome on anything,” White said. “But I have 100 percent confidence that everything that can be done will be done right.”
World-Herald researcher Jeanne Hauser contributed to this report.
Contact the writer:
444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com
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