Age 20 Man with Rare Liver Cancer Marries His Sweetheart Just Hours Before His Death
Terri Clark once said, “When someone has cancer, the whole family and everyone who loves them does, too.” It’s hard to think of a truer statement about that terrible illness.
A treatment plan for cancer rarely occurs in isolation, sweeping up friends and family members in its wake. Yet even its strong currents can’t completely upend a life.
Patients continue on, smiling and struggling, dreaming and desiring, living — and sometimes falling in love. That’s exactly what happened to an Army veteran from Waverly, Iowa, who married his sweetheart hours before passing away.
According to WLS, 20-year-old Tristin Laue didn’t get to enjoy a long life. A veteran, he’d served in the Army until developing a health condition that led to his discharge.
Sadly, he wasn’t dealing with an illness that responded well to treatment. He had cancer and a particularly nasty form of it.
Laue suffered from something called fibrolamellar carcinoma, a rare type of liver cancer, according to KTVU.
The National Institutes of Health’s Genetic and Rare Disease Information Center explains, “Other forms of liver cancer are often associated with liver cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) which may be caused by alcohol abuse; autoimmune diseases of the liver; Hepatitis B or C viral infections; chronic inflammation of the liver; and/or hemochromatosis.
“However, FLC typically occurs in the absence of underlying liver inflammation or scarring. Thus, specific risk factors for this condition remain unidentified.”
In other words, physicians don’t know exactly what causes it. But it often proves fatal.
Despite his grim prognosis, Laue decided that he wanted to finalize things with his girlfriend, Tianna. So he proposed on Easter — and she said yes.
WEAU reported that Laue got devastating news mere days later: He was about to die, and he could count his remaining time in mere days.
It would have been easy to decide that a wedding just wasn’t in the cards given the time he had left.
But Tianna and the greater Waverly community simply wouldn’t let that happen. They banded together and put the wedding on in record time.
Why? “He’s the love of my life,” Tianna explained.
They didn’t waste a moment getting things ready and the couple wed on April 27. Five hours after becoming man and wife, Laue passed away from complications from his cancer.
“He’s the love of my life,” Tianna said, “and even 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.'”
“Make sure you tell people you love them, because you never know when you’ll be able to. And just make sure you cherish every day, even if they’re having a rough day or getting really upset.”
“I feel blessed to have loved and been loved by such an amazing brave man,” she said to KTVU.
Our prayers go out for Tianna and Tristin’s family and friends during this heartbreaking time.
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