Two third grade childhood sweethearts from North Carolina, US, tied the knot as the girl, Emma Edwards, 10-year-old, only had a few days left with her. Emma was battling leukemia, reported Daily Mail.
Emma was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in April last year. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common childhood cancer. It is a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow that affects white blood cells.
While Emma’s parents – Alina, 39, and Aaron, 41 – were hopeful that their daughter would be able to beat the cancer, in June they were given the devastating news that Emma's cancer was incurable and she only had days to live.
Alina said Emma's dream was to marry boyfriend of two years, ten-year-old Daniel Marshall Christopher Williams Junior, also known as DJ.
Alina said, “'Most kids want to go to Disneyland but Emma wanted to get married, be a wife and have three kids. Their teacher spoke at their wedding and said they tried to have a wedding at recess. They had a bridesmaid and groomsmen and kids came to class with clip-on ties. It was really cute but the teacher said there wasn't going to be a wedding in her class. When me and DJ's mom found that out, we said we had to let them get married. It had to happen super-fast.”
She added, “We threw it together in less than two days, everything ended up being donated.”
A wedding ceremony was held in Emma’s gran’s garden on June 29 where 100 guests turned up. Aaron walked Emma down the aisle and the kids’ third-grade teacher made a speech about how the pair's relationship began.
“A friend of ours officiated, a friend read a verse from the bible and her best friend was maid of honor. Everyone got to see her who hadn't been able to. When you have cancer, you're secluded. Emma was a social butterfly so it was hard for her to be away from everyone. Her doctors came, nurses, teachers, family, friends, everybody,” Emma’s mom shared details of the precious ceremony, adding, “DJ is the sweetest soul you'll ever meet. He has a heart of gold and he really loves Emma.”
Emma sadly passed away on July 11. Sharing her experience as a mom, Alina shared, "We were going for another kind of treatment and they told us that she probably had days to a week, not weeks. We didn't expect to hear that at all. We thought we were going for another kind of treatment and it would work. It was like a gut punch. You never imagine them saying they can't do anything else for her."
Talking about how Emma was diagnosed. Alina shared that Emma seemed to be a healthy child until they took her to hospital after she fell over. Due to that incident, medics discovered the cancer in the bones in her legs in April last year.
Alina said, "She was never sick before. All of a sudden, she started throwing up. We found it by accident. She had fallen so they checked her legs and they found the cancer was eating holes in her bones and making her weak."
