A Bittersweet Love Story

This may seem a strange thread to post this story, but the overall theme is one of love & devotion... you may need a whole box of tissues to read the articles, but it's a very sweet love story:

Eighteen months in the planning, every detail of Jim and Trisha Duguay’s wedding day should have been perfect. But, that morning the bride awakened with an excruciating headache, dizziness & nausea.

"Trisha, 27, a blond and vivacious administrative assistant, beams in her lace wedding dress with a fuchsia sash, her toenails painted to match. Jim, 38, a soft-spoken engineer, cradles her face as he kisses her.
But look closer, and you’ll see another story unfolding.

Trisha leans heavily on her father’s arm as she walks slowly down the aisle. She and Jim have to sit during the marriage ceremony, which has been shortened to just a few minutes.

Behind her smile, Trisha’s pale blue eyes droop. Jim’s betray a look of fright. As they stand to kiss each other, Trisha holds tight to the leg of Jim’s pants, as if she’d fall if he weren’t there......"

Instead of enjoying the reception with their guests, The bride was carried in her wedding dress to a car which sped her to a nearby hospital where she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/couples-wedding-vows-put-592072.html

http://www.ajc.com/news/bride-in-coma-clings-612590.html?cxntlid=cmg_cntnt_rss

Jim Duguay has posted updates on a regular basis on a special Facebook page titled “From Bride to Angel” he created as a tribute to Trisha. There are now close to 3,000 fans of the page, now home to a constant stream of messages of love, concern and prayer.

http://www.ajc.com/news/bride-in-coma-27-620657.html

"For Trisha Rushing Duguay, tragedy arrived suddenly. Death was less hurried. On Friday morning about 9 a.m., four months after taking her wedding vows, Trisha quietly passed away in hospice, her husband and parents by her side. Just 27 years old, she had continued living, remarkably, for eight weeks after her husband and family had, according to her wishes, removed her feeding tube."

...."It’s the story of a seemingly unlikely but somehow perfectly matched couple finding each other. Of the relationship they built on shared passions, good humor and faith. And, ultimately, the story of the promise made from one to the other that both hoped would never have to be kept. "

...."Jim Duguay’s devotion to his wife a living example of the vow “Till death do us part.” She also said that the couple’s discussion about how to proceed if things turned out as they did was an important lesson for others, a reminder of how important it is for couples of all ages to discuss end-of-life questions of care.
“This is something Trisha and Jim thought would happen many, many, many years from now,” she said. “But Jim [had] to carry out her wishes now. And he has done it with grace and love.”

He also did it with faith and determination.
From the moment Trisha was hospitalized just after their wedding, Jim was by her side around the clock. He held her, told her he loved her, slept beside her in her narrow hospital bed. He brought her flowers on their four-month anniversary. "