Heather had no time to lose.
The diagnosis came on the very same day David was planning to propose to her: triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms there is. Even so, when he got down on one knee, she said yes, and the two of them decided to fight the clock together. The wedding was set for December 30, 2017, but doctors saw that Heather would not make it to that date. They moved the ceremony up by eight days.
On December 22, from a hospital bed and connected to life support, she dressed in white. She raised her arms as she recited her vows, as if crossing the finish line of a race no one believed she would finish. She died 18 hours later. The following week, David returned to that same church, but this time to say goodbye to her, precisely on the day they had originally planned to get married.
“She proved everyone wrong”, he said afterward, recalling that photo that today is making its way around the world as a symbol of love and resilience.
