A member of the USA National Guard hauled a wagon full of wedding dresses across the wasteland that used to be Phoenix, Oregon. The entire city, a black and gray heap of rubble, had been leveled during a recent wildfire and the dress shop was one of only a handful of buildings that remained intact. Just a few days later, and in a maelstrom of bad luck, a man from New Bothwell would marry the woman of his dreams.

As Derek Wiebe describes the days leading up to his wedding, 2,835 kilometers separate him and his new wife, Jacklyn Jones (who has since changed her name to Wiebe). The two were married in California this past September amid multiple wildfires and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. While not even those menacing obstacles could prevent their holy matrimony, another series of unprecedented complications is now keeping them apart. But, at least for the wedding, they were together, and that is where the story starts.

An orangy-gray sky hung above the Wiebe's new home in Rogue River Oregon (photo supplied by Derek Wiebe). As Wiebe flew over the western states towards his bride-to-be he says several ominous plumes of smoke lingered in the distance next to Seattle, Portland, and Salem. While mesmerizing to watch from the airplane window, he was calmed by the fact that the dark clouds were nowhere near his final destination. Indeed, when he landed at the southern tip of Oregon, the skies were clear and the weather was balmy... conditions that would not last long.

Two days later, Jones’ family instructed Wiebe to pack a ‘go-bag’ containing all of his essential belongings and advised him to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. A fire had ignited the forest just 25 minutes from where they were staying and the highways had begun to close.

“Everything was grey and dark, like thick fog,” recalls Wiebe. “And ash was falling like snow from the sky. We had to constantly wipe ash off of the car windows in order to drive.”

The blaze quickly grew in both size and notoriety and was dubbed the Almeda fire. It tore through the region devouring the small cities of Talent and Phoenix; decimating roughly 3,000 homes and hundreds of businesses. State officials would later determine it was caused by arson.

A wildfire ravaged the cities of Talent and Phoenix (photo credit: twitter.com/NurseSheepie)As Wiebe and Jones darted back and forth doing pre-wedding errands it suddenly donned on them that the wedding dress was hanging in a strip mall in Phoenix. Assuming her dress had burnt with the rest of the city, Jones made plans to begin her marriage in blue jeans and a white t-shirt instead.

“Then the owner of the shop texted us and told us that the building survived,” he states. “That building and the Home Depot were the only two buildings in the area that actually survived this fire.”

Being both a massive wildfire site and a crime scene, the national guard had set up a perimeter around the city and were not allowing anyone through. Nevertheless, Wiebe says his mother-in-law and the shop owner approached the barricade and were granted entry by the commander himself. An armed escort then led them to the mall and helped them load all of the dresses onto a wagon. Because the gowns had been in an airtight room, they did not even have smoke damage.

Wiebe says most buildings in the area were entirely burnt to the ground (photo credit: twitter.com/Doug_Binder).Having successfully retrieved the wedding dress, Wiebe says his entourage made their way from where they were staying, through the burnt Oregon cities, and to the venue in California where they were to be married. In their minds, things were on the up and up. “Then, the morning of the wedding, we got a call from our photographer, who was married to our DJ, and they said they had fevers and coughs and symptoms of COVID-19 and would be unable to come to our wedding.”

Within hours they were able to find replacements and the wedding itself, went by without a hitch.

“Considering the circumstances, it went as well as it could have,” laughs Wiebe. “And that is not even including the honeymoon where I got salmonella poisoning.”

Jones' wedding dress was preserved even after a fire destroyed the town in which it was made (photo supplied by Derek Wiebe).Though married, the couple has only been physically together for eleven days of their marriage and have not seen each other for over one month; a gap that will likely grow much much longer. Initially, Jones had been planning to join Wiebe in southeastern Manitoba, but that plan fell through when the federal government accused them of filling out the wrong Visa form. To avoid a fraudulence lawsuit, they were asked to drop their application. 'Plan B' features Wiebe moving to Oregon, but even his papers will be delayed for a matter of months.

In the meantime, Jones is living at their new home in Rogue River and Wiebe with his parents in New Bothwell, where he was raised. Having grown accustomed to living in different countries, Wiebe says he is relatively used to the constraints of distance, but this time it is different.

“We’ve been in a long-distance relationship for 20 months now,” explains Wiebe, “but I have to say these last three or four weeks have been the hardest. Being married and forming that special bond is something that has been robbed from us.”

The newlyweds remain optimistic and speak to each through video calls every day but, like the smoke that enshrouded their wedding preparations, a sense of uncomfortable uncertainty still lingers in the air.

“Hopefully we can be together soon,” says Wiebe. “Hopefully by Christmas.”