5 Hours After Saying ‘I Do,’ Army Veteran Dies From Cancer in His New Bride’s Presence

A picture from a GofundMe campaign (Grace Tolliver/GoFundMe)

A 20-year-old army veteran battling with liver cancer died just five hours after marrying his girlfriend in Iowa on April 27.

Tristan Laue joined the United States Army in July 2016 and was medically discharged in April 2018 because he was suffering from a rare form of cancer.

Just hours before his death, Laue got to fulfill his last wish and marry Tianna Hargrafen, the love of his life, reported KWWL.

Laue proposed to Hargrafen on Easter and a few days later their families realized that the marriage needed to happen soon. Within the next 48 hours, the entire community came together to celebrate their love and the wedding happened at the family’s backyard in Waverly.

A picture of Tristan Laue shared by his family on his Obituary page. (Kaiser-Corson Funeral Home)

“He’s the love of my life, and even like talking to my mom and everything, she said some people don’t get what you two had in the amount of time, like they’ll be together for years and still not have the same connection that you guys did,” Hargrafen told KWWL.

Laue and Hargrafen also share a birthday on May 11. Mitch Laue, the young man’s father said Tianna was his angel.

“Make sure you tell people you love them because you never know when you won’t be able to, and just make sure you cherish every day. Even if they’re having a rough day or getting really upset,” said Hargrafen.

The veteran’s funeral services were held at Crosspoint Church in Waverly on Saturday.

Laue’s classmates want to create a memorial for him. “The class of 2016 mourns our beloved classmate Tristin Laue. We thought it would be a great opportunity to honor him with a memorial bench and his name on the Chickasaw Legacy Pathway,” said a fundraiser on GoFundMe.

“Help us remember a great Chickasaw who brought laughter and kindness to us all!” the fundraiser said.

Stock image of a wedding. (Kgorz/Pixabay)

In a similar incidence, a 19-year-old bride with cancer had a dream wedding in hospital as she only had hours to live.

The young bride-to-be had terminal cancer, and her wedding had to be fast-tracked when doctors feared she only had hours to live. A heartbreaking, but at the same time, heartwarming story.

Nina Marino, 19, and Joey Williams, 21, had been childhood friends since primary school. They began dating in June 2017 just after Nina had a diagnosis of an undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma, a type of soft tissue cancer.

Although she bravely battled the cancer, it was terminal, and when her condition worsened, doctors suggested they fast-track their wedding plans, as it was feared she wouldn’t last through the night.

Photo courtesy of Patel Creative

“The doctor encouraged us that, if we wanted to be married, we should do it that day. It was a lot all at once. Nina just said, ‘Okay, let’s do it,’” said Joey, according to The Mirror.

Family and staff set up a ceremony from Nina’s bedside in ICU at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Tampa.

They decorated the room with photos of the couple’s journey together. Around 30 or so family and friends gathered to make it a special day for the couple.

Nina did last through the night and was able to hang on for another three days. She died on Sept. 6, 2018.

Joey told People: “It wasn’t the wedding of our dreams but it was the wedding that made our dreams come true.”

“It was really important to her. It was one of the things that she absolutely wanted to do, one of the things I wanted to do.”

Photo courtesy of Patel Creative

Although Nina and Joey didn’t have much time to spend together as a married couple, Nina’s last memories were happy ones, as her dream was to marry Joey.

Photographer Nil Patel was there to photograph the couple’s precious moment.

“It was as if there wasn’t even an illness present in this equation and everyone was there to celebrate another magical love story,” he wrote on LoveWhatMatters.

Epoch Times reporter Chris Ford contributed to this report.