With Just Days Left To Live, Terminally Ill Man Renews Vows with Wife in Emotional Ceremony
To have and to hold. Until death do us part. These are common phrases we hear spoken during a wedding ceremony.
Sadly, they don’t always hold true. But for those couples who are able to make it last until the end, the sight is truly sweet.
For Tony and Christy Leonard of Fayetteville, North Carolina, the end will come far too soon as the couple may have mere days before Tony says goodbye for the last time.
In 2012, Tony was diagnosed with cancer. Years of battling the disease — and even beating it — have brought him to this point, according to ABC 11.
He’s been married to his wife Christy for twelve years. They’ve been through it all together. “I’m not ready to say goodbye,” Christy wrote on her blog, Death to Cancer, on Jan. 2.
“I now know we are looking at days,” she wrote. “…when you get to heaven, my love, save a place for me…”
The couple’s story is heartbreaking, and a life is ending too soon. But amidst the sadness, the couple found a way to celebrate the love they’ve shared all these years.
Brooke Tedder, Tony’s hospice nurse, helped make it all possible. “We lost our son to lung cancer eight years ago,” Tedder shared with ABC 11.
The compassionate nurse went on to say she was honored to pin a boutonniere onto Tony, since she would never get the chance to do so with her own son.
With tears in their eyes, the Leonards — with their family and friends looking on — renewed their wedding vows just as they’d always hoped to do one day.
Though mostly bedridden, Tony stood for the emotional ceremony, holding Christy’s hands and kissing her tenderly.
“How about cheers to eternity? You save me a place, you hear me?” Christy said, echoing the sentiment she wrote on her blog.
Wedding cake and photos followed. It will certainly be a day to remember. Christy expressed that Tony is the “love of her life.”
“For now, I will dry my eyes, go lay in his arms, and kiss him, tell him I love him… and enjoy it,” she wrote on her blog.
Our hearts ache for this couple and their family. Our prayers go up for them during this time. Their faith and love is inspiring to us all.
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