‘Second chance at life’ brings couple together for 2-22-22 wedding

It’s not often someone gets a second chance at love. It’s rarer to get a second chance at life. That’s why on “Twosday” — 02-22-22 — Sheila Daley and James Dunbar married, celebrating the second chances that came in the form of their relationship and heart transplants.

The Rochester, Minnesota, couple were one of thousands celebrating their nuptials Tuesday as people flocked to Las Vegas to wed on the lucky date.

Daley, 62, and Dunbar, 57, have known each other for years as colleagues at the same country club, the couple said. Dunbar, who had a heart transplant in 2015 after a heart attack, became someone who Daley could relate to when she was diagnosed with a genetic heart condition several years later and learned she would likely need a transplant, too.

“It became more fresh in mind, like there’s someone who has gone through this that I’m going to have to (go through),” Daley said. “But it’s hard to say whether we would have gotten together. I think that this was a big part of it, that we both shared this.”

“I fell in love with you right away,” Dunbar added. “You kept getting sicker and sicker, slower and more rundown. Then to go into this heart transplant surgery is amazing. It’s an eight-hour surgery and the recovery — she bounced back so fast after the transplant, it was so inspiring. Then I knew she was going to outlive me, so I just had to marry her.”

The couple tied the knot at the Wynn Las Vegas at 10 a.m. with about 50 guests in attendance, including their adult children and Daley’s parents. Dunbar chose the date for its uniqueness, noting it would be an easy anniversary to remember.

Previous repeating dates, including 07-07-07 and 11-11-11, saw several thousand weddings in the Las Vegas Valley, Clark County Clerk Lynn Marie Goya said Monday. The total for “Twosday” won’t be known until March as couples can take several days after the ceremony to receive their marriage license from the clerk’s office.

But the date is expected to be a big one for the local industry, which boasts the title of the Wedding Capital of the World and brings in an estimated $2.5 billion of annual economic activity in the county. So many couples filed their paperwork last weekend that the county reached its 5 millionth marriage license milestone on Sunday.

Daley, a psychologist, and Dunbar, a Realtor, recently moved into a new home in Mesa, Arizona, where they plan to enjoy an active lifestyle of playing golf and walking their two Dobermans during the winter and returning to Rochester by spring.

They said they are particularly happy to be together after knowing how precious life is.

“We just know the importance,” Daley said. “You can’t control time. There’s only so much time and we just really wanted to spend that time together with our gratitude for being organ recipients.”

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on Twitter.