On her wedding ceremony day, Diane Meazey wore a vibrant scarlet costume and clutched a chic bouquet of white roses. The then 57-year-old walked up the aisle on her brother’s arm to the sound of The Girl In Crimson by Chris De Burgh.
Her husband-to-be, Jeremy Meazey, 56, was in a swimsuit, sporting a wise new watch. The room was adorned with balloons, extra flowers and champagne flutes sat prepared, and household and buddies appeared on.
“It was such a good looking second. I discover it fairly onerous to look again at our images of that day as a result of it was so emotional,” says Diane, a lettings agent. Six days after the marriage, her new husband died.
It wasn’t surprising; Jeremy had been affected by most cancers and was given a really quick prognosis. The marriage had been organised in a matter of hours, with a considerably unconventional venue – as an alternative of a church or registry workplace, it passed off within the Marie Curie hospice the place Jeremy spent his last days.
It was a bittersweet finish to the couple’s whirlwind romance. They met on Match.com in 2017 and went on their first date on Valentine’s Day that yr. Jeremy was a retired accountant taking a tentative step into the world of relationship, having misplaced his spouse three years earlier than.
It’s a marvel their paths had by no means crossed as they have been from the identical space in South Wales and, as they quickly found, had even been in school collectively. She was a yr forward of him. The connections didn’t finish there: she’d let a flat to his greatest buddy’s daughter and her childhood greatest buddy was his son’s mother-in-law.
That evening, as Diane was gushing on the telephone to her buddies concerning the night, Jeremy wrote on the relationship website: “Thanks, Match, I’ve met my dream.”
The couple’s relationship blossomed. One among their favorite issues to do was to stroll collectively, endlessly looping Cardiff Bay, stopping for a chunk to eat, then taking the bus residence. Jeremy shocked Diane with weekends away in Tenby, the Lake District, and Cornwall, the place they stayed in Port Isaac, the setting of her favourite TV show, Doc Martin.
After a yr, Jeremy and Diane acquired engaged. They deliberate how they’d merge their households and visited potential wedding ceremony venues. Then got here the prognosis that upended every part.
“In March 2019, Jeremy’s son joined the Royal Navy and he drove him all the way down to Portsmouth,” recollects Diane, now 64 and nonetheless dwelling in Cardiff. “He got here again to mine for some meals that night and advised me his again was aching actually badly. He was by no means ailing in order that was uncommon.”
The ache elevated the following morning, and so Diane consulted her buddy who labored on the native physician’s surgical procedure and acquired Jeremy an appointment. “The GP thought he had an aortic aneurysm and advised him to go straight to hospital.”
The docs ran assessments and hours handed as they waited. Jeremy advised Diane to go residence, that he’d message me when he was completed. Finally docs advised him they couldn’t get his outcomes as a result of the computer systems have been down.
“I believe that was simply because they didn’t wish to inform him whereas he was on his personal,” says Diane. “The following morning we went again they usually took us into a bit room and advised us it was dangerous information: he had a development on his stomach.”
Biopsies adopted however the outcomes have been inconclusive. The expansion was on however not in Jeremy’s pancreas. “I clung to that,” says Diane, herself a survivor of breast cancer. “I saved considering, so long as it’s solely ‘on’ his pancreas, they’ll deal with it with chemo.”
However then they got the information they’d dreaded: Jeremy had pancreatic most cancers and solely 12 to 18 months to reside,” recollects Diane. As rain hammered in opposition to the home windows, Diane remembers she couldn’t cease shaking. Finally, they managed to get residence – Diane’s residence, Jeremy’s sons have been at his and he couldn’t face telling them but.
By Might, Diane was watching Jeremy losing away. He was taken to hospital in an ambulance as soon as in early Might and required main surgical procedure. That was the day Diane admitted to herself that the most cancers was incurable. Although he finally made it residence, he was getting weaker. “I’d attempt to coax him to eat however he was simply going downhill.”
When Jeremy fell and couldn’t get himself again up, nurses suggested that it may be time to take him to Cardiff and the Vale, a close-by hospice run by Marie Curie, one of many charities supported by this year’s Telegraph Christmas Appeal. Coincidentally, he was positioned within the room beside the ocean the place Diane’s personal mom had spent a few of her last days.
A few week and a half later, Diane acquired a name. “He simply mentioned to me ‘They’ve advised me I’m not going to make it,’” she remembers. “I went in to see him and we each simply cried and cried. He talked about that we wouldn’t be capable to get married now, and one of many employees members overheard and mentioned ‘Nicely, you may get married right here.’”
And so the planning for the marriage started. Diane and Jeremy’s household spent three days operating round, shopping for rings, planning music and organising meals. After the ceremony, with the blessing of Jeremy’s sons, Diane was in a position to sleep in a single day along with her husband on the hospice. “Apparently all he wished was to be with me,” says Diane.
The couple spent their wedding ceremony evening with the beds pushed collectively, adorned with “Simply Married” banners. They held arms all evening.