NEWS CHRONICLE PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Harold “Red” Seeley (pictured in wheelchair) and his wife, Susan Wilcox, standing behind him, celebrated their belated honeymoon at the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel on Monday evening. Seeley is battling stage four incurable cancer. Also pictured, from Iowa River Hospice, are LPN Michele Barnes, LBSW Jennifer Ford, RN McKenna Huseboe and volunteer Melanie Davenport along with Casino Marketing Assistant Hannah Brown, General Manager Scott Sirois and Hotel Director Natoya Furlow. Not pictured from IRH are RN Amanda McDowell and CNA Angie Gunderson.

Susan Wilcox fondly recalls the night she met Harold “Red” Seeley at Dave and Sally’s Bar in Marshalltown last June. As it turned out, he and another man were competing for her attention, but she gravitated toward Red. Barely a year later, they were married.

“I thought ‘What in the world?’ I didn’t think I’d ever meet another man, and here I’ve got two guys, you know,” Wilcox, who had previously been widowed, said. “I just knew, as soon as I got to know him a little better, that he was the one.”

The newlyweds, who have a total of six kids between them, had originally planned to take a honeymoon trip to Oklahoma to visit one of Red’s cousins, but then Red found out he had come down with an incurable stage four cancer. Susan is also battling her own case of skin cancer, but she believes it will be treatable.

Red, who has lived in the Gladbrook, Green Mountain and Beaman areas and today resides in Marshalltown, is now receiving in-home care through Iowa River Hospice, and when the activities team heard his story, they sprung into action to provide he and Susan the honeymoon they deserved — even if it ended up being a little closer to home than they had originally planned.

On Monday afternoon, Red and Susan checked into the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel and received a special welcome from a group that included General Manager Scott Sirois. Meskwaki donated their dinner and breakfast the following morning as well as a gift bag in their room, and Lillie Mae Chocolates also provided some sweet treats.

NEWS CHRONICLE PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Susan and Red show off the bouquet of flowers they received in their hotel room. Meskwaki donated their meals and a gift basket, and Lillie Mae Chocolates provided sweet trips for the special night.

Melanie Davenport, an IRH volunteer, Iowa Veterans Home (IVH) RTW and Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) paraeducator who formerly worked in marketing at the casino, helped to arrange the special getaway through her connections, and Community Liaison/Volunteer Coordinator Pamela Wells, who described Davenport as a “secret angel,” and the IRH staff did the rest.

Red and Susan didn’t have any crazy plans for the night other than hopefully winning some money over at the casino, but the experience they shared thanks to IRH and Meskwaki is one neither of them will soon forget.