A Delaware hospital organized a wedding on Sunday for a terminally ill patient and his fiancée, who followed their vow to be together “in sickness and in health” long before they said, “I do.”
Rachel Jiménez said everything changed for her and her fiancée, Gus when he received a cancer diagnosis in August.
“Everything kind of changed in August,” Rachel told WABC. “That’s when they did an x-ray and found a small little lump on his lung. That was it.”
The cancer is currently incurable, and it brought a shock to their relationship, which began six months before Gus received the terminal diagnosis.
“From the first date, he basically proposed to me every date after that. Just kind of jokingly, but we both knew it was kind of serious,” said Rachel.
Then on January 31, Gus was admitted to Wilmington Hospital for dehydration.
“His pain progressed, and he has been in the hospital since that day,” Megan McGuriman, a spokeswoman for ChristianaCare, told CNN.
Gus, thinking he might never go home, decided to propose to Rachel on February 15 from his hospital bed.
“We kind of just talked about, ‘Why would we get married if we know this potentially could lead to him not being here much longer?’ and I said I didn’t care about that,” Rachel said.
A week later, the Wilmington Hospital staff set up an altar in the hospital atrium and put on a wedding ceremony for the couple. Staff members bought wedding cake and cupcakes, decorated the space with flowers, and set up an area for guests to sit, McGuriman said.
A photographer volunteered to take pictures of the wedding, and Men’s Wearhouse and David’s Bridal donated the wedding garb for the couple, McGuriman added.
Rachel said she is cherishing the time she has left with Gus, remembering her wedding vows.
“We’re still living in the moment, and that’s basically what we’re doing every day,” Rachel said. “I still want to be his wife no matter what.”
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