Widow married fiancé in hospital hours before he died

NationalWorld.com

A woman married her fiancé in hospital after learning he was seriously ill - and he died just 34 hours later.   Rosie Dack, 25, married late husband Ryan, 25, in Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on June 25, 2023, after he was given a week to live.   The pair planned the wedding in just two hours - after Ryan told Rosie on a whim his last wish was to marry her.

Transcript

00:00Me and Ryan met at a wheelchair football awards night.

00:04We sang karaoke together.

00:05It was completely random and accidental.

00:09I was half cut and was just having the time of my life.

00:13In June 2021, I was turning 23.

00:16He wanted to meet more of my friends and family.

00:18He said, invite your best friends and some of your family over.

00:22Let's have a barbecue for your birthday.

00:23I thought, sure, why not?

00:25The day before he arrived, I go up to his hotel room

00:29and I unpack his bag while he's on the toilet.

00:32I find the engagement ring.

00:33But I never told him this until the month he died.

00:37Then we're just sitting there on ShotSpinner,

00:40like getting wasted, having so much fun.

00:42And he pulls out the ring and asked me to marry him.

00:45He had a physical disability.

00:46He had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

00:48He required a lot of care.

00:50So we had to secure funding to help pay for his care.

00:55The noble have carers.

00:56So we had a good quality of care here.

00:59He could live life, basically.

01:01It took him 13 months for the process of him being able to move in.

01:05And it's one of those grueling processes I will never want to go through again.

01:09But I felt like we were a normal able-bodied couple

01:12and that we were able to do everything.

01:14I felt invincible.

01:16If you don't know me, I have a disability.

01:18I have Gronstadt's disease, which means my bones are very brittle.

01:21They break and they've been eaten away.

01:23First Christmas living together was just so beautiful and so romantic as well.

01:28Fast forward to May 2023.

01:31This is when, now I look back, things started to go a bit weird.

01:36He started to get things like tonsillitis, conjunctivitis, common colds.

01:43And I noticed his immune system wasn't as good as it used to be,

01:47which worried me because I knew he was susceptible to

01:50coughs, colds, pneumonia, chest infections, all the horrible stuff.

01:55In June 2023, the weekend of the beginning of everything going wrong,

02:03I was away at a wheelchair football tournament with my team.

02:06He stayed at home.

02:07He texts me, just general conversation.

02:10He says, oh, I've got a bit of a sore throat, so I've taken some paracetamol.

02:13And I thought, that's weird.

02:15He doesn't like to take medication.

02:17When I got home, I noticed he was quite, like, snotty.

02:20And I thought, oh, maybe it's hay fever or allergies,

02:23as some Americans call it.

02:26So Monday came, and I completely dosed him up on so much allergy relief

02:31to help relieve his symptoms.

02:33But they were getting worse throughout the day.

02:35So the next day, I sent him to the doctors.

02:37And he was sent home with some antibiotics,

02:40which didn't agree with his normal medication.

02:43Wednesday, his symptoms got a lot worse.

02:46So I sent him to A&E.

02:47He was sent home with some stronger medication,

02:51which would have worked if we had this right at the beginning.

02:54Thursday came, and the antibiotics went in his system quick enough.

02:59He was struggling to breathe.

03:00And I was taught by his practitioners,

03:04if he ever becomes ill, like, notice these signs,

03:07then you need to call an ambulance.

03:09So he gets taken away in the ambulance.

03:10And I notice something going on in my mind.

03:13And I knew that was the last time he was going to be in the house.

03:162 a.m., Friday morning, the hospital call.

03:22Ryan's in ICU.

03:23I was needed straight away.

03:24And I needed to call his parents.

03:26That was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make.

03:29I was hysterical.

03:30I go up there at 2 a.m., and I'm by his bedside until 4 a.m.,

03:35and where I was told, you need to get your energy up,

03:37go home while he's stable, and come back tomorrow.

03:41He had a bag of Haribo sweets.

03:43And I put the jelly one, like, ring on his ring finger,

03:47just messing about, because, like, I was engaged at the time,

03:50and I needed him to have a ring.

03:52And I just, you know, put it on his finger, and I messed around.

03:55Little did I know, less than eight hours later,

03:59I was going to be called back up the hospital.

04:04And those were going to be our wedding rings.

04:07On the Monday, the next day, it was my 25th birthday.

04:12And we were told Ryan was on end-of-life care.

04:15Ryan passed away at half past six in the evening.

04:18I'm so grateful to have had him in my life.

04:22He made me realize how precious life is,

04:29and made me just treasure every fucking moment.

04:35Because once it's gone, it's gone.

04:37And I miss him so much.

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