Hope and Joy Shine Through the Time of COVID-19

For the past eight weeks, COVID-19 has turned ordinary life upside down. Sorrow and anxiety have become everyday constants as we have lost more than 75,000 people in the U.S., and we still have no clear idea when and how this pandemic will end.

But this week I found myself filled with hope and joy, and a renewed sense of optimism about what we can accomplish when we work together. All of this occurred on Tuesday night during a single 30-minute Zoom call.

On that call, I officiated the wedding ceremony of Love Singhal and Sarita Jayantee Biswal. They were the first couple in Santa Clara County, and one of the first in the entire State of California, to be married via online video.

Officiating their ceremony was one of the highlights of my week. It was so uplifting to see the happiness and excitement on the faces of Sarita and Love as they exchanged vows.

Sarita and Love were able to get married because of many people working at different levels of government who cooperated and moved quickly to help make life a little easier during the COVID-19 crisis.

Normally you cannot get married in California without a ceremony performed “in the physical presence of the person solemnizing the marriage and necessary witnesses.” Of course, that is not possible with the current shelter-in-place orders. This means that thousands of couples in California have put their weddings, and the start of their lives together, on hold during the pandemic.

Thankfully, that is not the case anymore because Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order temporarily suspending the state’s ceremony law. Sarita and Love were able to get married within days of that order thanks to the rapid work of the Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder’s Office in getting the necessary procedures in place.

Dozens of family and friends, many of whom were up early in the morning in India, were able to join the Zoom call and view the ceremony. Their happiness at being able to share the occasion was just as visible as Sarita and Love’s.

Mercury News columnist Sal Pizarro wrote a lovely story about the ceremony. You can read it here.

There will be no live wedding ceremonies in our community any time soon because of COVID-19 and the shelter-in-place order. Even after shelter-in-place is lifted, it may be a long time before large ceremonies and receptions are once again a regular part of spring.

However, this week showed me that, by coming together as a community and embracing a little innovative thinking, there is a way forward in the time of COVID-19.