DALTON, Ga. — Three times, Mary Chastain asked her husband Benjamin to renew their wedding vows, and each time he said no, their daughter Dixie Dotson said.

This past June, Dotson asked her mom what she wanted to do for their 58th wedding anniversary on July 3. She replied, “I want to get married again.”

Dotson said she told her mom, “Well, I guess I’m going to have to make that happen for you.”

On July 9, surrounded by family, friends and the staff at Regency Park Health and Rehabilitation where the couple lived, Mary, 79, and Ben, 84, renewed their vows. On July 19, Mary Chastain died from cancer, her daughter said.

Dotson said her mother had only been at Regency for six months before becoming ill in June. She spent 15 days in the hospital after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Dotson said she focused on making her mother’s last wish a reality. She said family, friends, co-workers and Regency’s staff all helped.

“Everyone came together and helped make it happen,” she said. “It was amazing, you can tell the Lord was in it.”

Making the day even more special, Dotson said, was her mother wearing Dotson’s wedding dress from 28 years ago.

“I felt like the mother of the bride this time,” she said.

“Mary was beautiful in an off-white lace dress, matching shoes, and holding a bouquet of yellow roses,” a Regency newsletter stated. “Ben looked handsome in a gray suit, tie and boutonniere. The ceremony was held at the piano with a painting of their honeymoon cabin displayed and memories shared.”

The couple’s brother-in-law, Lamar Beason, officiated the ceremony, and their nephew, Steve Chastain, sang “Three Times a Lady” by the Commodores.

Ben Chastain, a native of Murphy, N.C., said he met Mary, of Chatsworth, while both were employed at Whitehead Cleaners in Dalton. She was a clerk and he was a delivery driver. When asked what kind of person his wife was, he responded, “Jolly.”

He recalled a time when they were on vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains and encountered a bear.

“The bear got after us. We were standing by the cars and wasn’t paying any attention,” he said. He said a group of teens were agitating the bear.

“The bear launched at us but we were able to get away,” he said. “We jumped over a rock wall.”

The couple raised four children — Dotson, Bennie Chastain, Bobbie Chastain and Sonyia Chastain — and adopted five: Alissa, Coda, Elizabeth, Erica and Stormy Manley.

“She was everything a mom should be,” Dotson said. “She made clothes, cooked big dinners on Sundays and breakfast every morning.”

Susan Headrick, activities director at Regency, said family was big to the Chastains.

“They were always looking out for each other. She liked being around her husband,” Headrick said.

Stephanie Rendon, a certified nursing assistant at Regency, helped take care of the couple. She said Mary Chastain shared a tip with her.

“She told me if I put grape jelly and butter in Ben’s oatmeal or grits he’ll eat it,” she said.

Rendon said the couple often sat in recliners and watched old television shows like “Bonanza” and “Gunsmoke.”

Headrick said the couple were always together.

“She wanted to spend her final days next to him and she did,” Headrick said. “They were a very special couple.”