Politics & Government

Mt. Kisco Village Manager Honored for Helping with Dying Wish

James Palmer gets Northern Westchester Hospital's Shooting Star Award, for helping arrange a marriage for woman close to death.

Mount Kisco Village Manager James Palmer has been honored for helping to arrange a marriage as a woman's dying wish.

At Monday's Village Board of Trustees meeting, Kerry Flynn Barrett, a vice president for announced that he has been given its Shooting Star Award for helping a patient.

“I would like to show my gratitude to you for your extraordinary care and compassion that you demonstrated to a couple who were dealing with a very difficult circumstance and a dying wish," Flynn Barrett told the village board and Palmer.

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The request came for an ill Daphne Groos to marry Karen Ott on Saturday, July 21, Palmer explained. The problem, however, is that marriages have a 24-hour wait period after licenses are issued, unless a waiver is given from a state supreme court judge.

Robert Spolzino, a former state supreme court judge (and chair of the NWH board of trustees) was contacted. He then got in contact with state supreme court judge Nicholas Colabella, who granted the waiver.

Find out what's happening in Chappaqua-Mount Kiscowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Groos made it through the night but she subsequently passed away, Palmer said.

Palmer is thankful for his role in helping in expediting the process.

"They were a special couple and I was honored to help facilitate their marriage and am humbled by the recognition," he replied. "There are many who helped make this possible, demonstrating it indeed takes a Village like Mt. Kisco to help fulfill a wish such as this."

Mayor Michael Cindrich described it as an "act of kindness."

"The patient's partner kept saying, “I think we must be in a movie because this would never happen anywhere but in a movie,"" Flynn Barrett wrote in her statement. "Their friend said that although they are dealing with such an unfortunate circumstance, they just can‘t believe how it took a village (literally) and that everyone cared so much and just “Did it!" She said they just couldn't believe what they witnessed and that they were so happy to have found the right people in the right place."

Mount Kisco Village Justice Mark Farrell performed the ceremony, at 11:59 p.m. in the intensive care unit, Flynn Barrett said.


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