Husband organizes a wedding for his wife with cancer and dementia

At 8 am, Mr. Thuy (52 years old, Shanghai, China) helps his wife Cathleen with personal hygiene, prepares breakfast and gives her medicine. On the sofa, Cathleen hugged her teddy bear, petting it while watching TV.

After taking the medicine, Cathleen turned to her husband and asked: “What did we eat this morning, I forgot”.

Anh Thuy and Cathleen have been married for 26 years. Now, Cathleen’s memory loss becomes a story the two must face. “Where is this, what day is today, what day is today, what are we going to do today?…” are the questions that Mr. Thuy hears every day.

Despite having to answer a thousand times, he persisted and will continue to answer whenever his wife asks.

Cathleen’s dementia resembles Alzheimer’s disease, but she actually has ovarian cell carcinoma. In the spring of 2019, Cathleen (49 years old) started having sharp pains in her lower abdomen. She felt that her body was not good, so she went to the hospital for a checkup. The doctor informed her that she had a cyst in her ovary. Cathleen at the time thought that just having surgery was fine, so she didn’t pay much attention.

But the pain persisted causing Cathleen once again to go to the hospital. The doctor said it was a malignant tumor, the size was growing. After knowing the results, the couple remained silent in the hospital corridor.

Accompanying his wife, Thuy found that Cathleen was very brave. During treatment, she identified herself as a “female warrior”.

After four rounds of chemotherapy, cancer cells remained in Cathleen’s body despite having her ovaries and uterus removed. Finally, in 2020, both decided to go to the US for medical treatment. At the same time, Cathleen began to lose her memory.

All memories of his wife’s past were gradually erased, making Mr. Thuy extremely worried. I don’t know if she forgot me or not.

When he returned to China, 1 month, he had to take his wife to the hospital 3 times for chemotherapy and health check. Every time he waited for the results, he was extremely nervous, afraid that his wife’s condition would worsen. To him, his wife’s illness was like a flood, coming suddenly and sweeping everything away as it passed.

2021 is the 25th wedding anniversary of him and his wife Cathleen. During treatment in the US before, Cathleen told him about a silver wedding and he agreed. Although his wife had forgotten all of that, he was determined to keep his promise.

Together they went to the wedding dress shop. Every time she tries on a dress, Cathleen asks her husband: “Do you look good in this?” He immediately showed his wife the pictures he had taken of the gorgeous and beautiful bride. When the curtain opened, Mr. Thuy saw his wife and felt extremely emotional. She should have worn this dress 25 years ago.

In 1994, Mr. Thuy, then 24 years old, met his current wife Cathleen at an ice rink in Tianjin city. Cathleen at that time was 21 years old, an employee of a multinational company, and her colleagues went to the skating rink to play. When he saw Cathleen panicking with the skating rink, Mr. Thuy came to the place to teach. After that, Cathleen went to the rink many times. Anh Thuy and her have more opportunities to meet and talk, since time immemorial, their minds have been compatible. Thuy often goes to Cathleen’s house to help her with the housework and feelings arise from that.

As a security guard, Mr. Thuy mustered the courage to pursue Cathleen. “There’s actually a huge gap between us. Cathleen works in a foreign company. She is highly educated and respected by many people,” said Mr. Thuy.

The love of Cathleen and Mr. Thuy is very strong. Although the girl’s family did not accept, the two still decided to come together. In September 1996, the two held a simple wedding. At noon, two people eat at home, each wearing a white suit, go out together and then go to a nearby barber shop to get their hair done. After leaving the hair salon, the two took a taxi back to the hotel. The driver looked in the rearview mirror and thought they were guests to the wedding.

With a limited budget, the wedding only has 5-6 tables, the scene is quite simple. Thuy always feels guilty for not being able to bring his wife a decent wedding.

A year after the wedding, the couple moved to Shanghai to live. Shanghai is Mr. Thuy’s hometown, and his parents and relatives live there. Life at that time was poor, but both always felt happy and appreciated each other.

In 2002, Mr. Thuy and his wife Cathleen established a construction material trading company.

At the beginning of his career, Thuy’s experience was not as good as Cathleen’s, so she taught a lot. Later, career advancement, both have more economic, together travel many places. They have many good memories together, but now Cathleen has gradually forgotten them.

In August 2020, Cathleen had two seizures when she came to the US for treatment. The doctor said her condition had worsened. Mr. Thuy brought his wife back to China and fortunately after that, Cathleen recovered, just the memory was gone.

The doctor said that the memory loss is also good, it will help Cathleen forget about the illness, from now on there will only be happy things. Looking at the wife in front of him, Mr. Thuy thought of fulfilling his promise, doing a “silver” wedding to capture the sweet moment, helping his wife to once wear a gorgeous wedding dress, which he had not done before. Okay.

Although the host reminded Mr. Thuy to write down the words that needed to be said on paper, he didn’t want to. He wanted to pin all of this in his head. However, when the bride came out, because he was so emotional, he couldn’t say a word, only hugged his wife and cried. The love story of Mr. Thuy and his wife became an inspiration to many people, and was adapted into a documentary by Tianjin TV station.

Thuy said emotionally: “I don’t care about anything, just hope that my wife can remember me, I will be with her every day, saying I love her…”.

Tu Linh (According to 163)