LOVELAND – A Colorado woman, who is fighting cancer, said her dying wish came true on Thursday.
The inside of a chapel, family and friends, the bride and groom. They are things Patricia Leslie didn’t think she would live to see for her daughter Stephanie.
“It’s just like any other day a mother would see her children get married,” Leslie said. “It’s just one of the happiest moments of your life.”
It’s happening in an unexpected place, though. Leslie’s daughter is getting married at McKee Medical Center in Loveland, because the mother of the bride can’t leave the hospital.
“At some point, I did hear them say I wasn’t going back home,” Leslie said.
Patricia is in the late stages of myelofibrosis, a bone cancer. She was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and told she didn’t have much longer to live.
“All the medicine’s been discontinued now,” she said.
Her daughter, Stephanie, planned to get married in May, but when she learned how dire her mother’s health is, she and her fiancé, Tony Pritt, decided to get married now.
“We always knew we were going to get married with my mom,” Stephanie said. “We just didn’t know where the setting would be.”
Within 48 hours, everything came together: the hospital provided the chapel, while friends and family took care of other details.
Then, everyone came together. Several family members and friends, gathered with Leslie as her daughter said her wedding vows.
“It is definitely the happiest day of my life, and the saddest, all at the same time,” Stephanie said.
A naturally emotional day.
Stephanie says she still plans to have another wedding in May, since not everyone could make it to the one at the hospital on short notice.
Leslie said she hopes sharing her story will bring more attention to funding research for bone cancers like hers.
