A woman married her fiancé in hospital after learning he was seriously ill - and he died just 34 hours later.
Rosie Dack, 25, married late husband Ryan, 25, in Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on June 25, 2023, after he was given a week to live.
The pair planned the wedding in just two hours - after Ryan told Rosie on a whim his last wish was to marry her.
Rosie Dack, 25, married late husband Ryan, 25, in Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on June 25, 2023, after he was given a week to live.
The pair planned the wedding in just two hours - after Ryan told Rosie on a whim his last wish was to marry her.
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00:00Me and Ryan met at a wheelchair football awards night.
00:04We sang karaoke together.
00:05It was completely random and accidental.
00:09I was half cut and was just having the time of my life.
00:13In June 2021, I was turning 23.
00:16He wanted to meet more of my friends and family.
00:18He said, invite your best friends and some of your family over.
00:22Let's have a barbecue for your birthday.
00:23I thought, sure, why not?
00:25The day before he arrived, I go up to his hotel room
00:29and I unpack his bag while he's on the toilet.
00:32I find the engagement ring.
00:33But I never told him this until the month he died.
00:37Then we're just sitting there on ShotSpinner,
00:40like getting wasted, having so much fun.
00:42And he pulls out the ring and asked me to marry him.
00:45He had a physical disability.
00:46He had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
00:48He required a lot of care.
00:50So we had to secure funding to help pay for his care.
00:55The noble have carers.
00:56So we had a good quality of care here.
00:59He could live life, basically.
01:01It took him 13 months for the process of him being able to move in.
01:05And it's one of those grueling processes I will never want to go through again.
01:09But I felt like we were a normal able-bodied couple
01:12and that we were able to do everything.
01:14I felt invincible.
01:16If you don't know me, I have a disability.
01:18I have Gronstadt's disease, which means my bones are very brittle.
01:21They break and they've been eaten away.
01:23First Christmas living together was just so beautiful and so romantic as well.
01:28Fast forward to May 2023.
01:31This is when, now I look back, things started to go a bit weird.
01:36He started to get things like tonsillitis, conjunctivitis, common colds.
01:43And I noticed his immune system wasn't as good as it used to be,
01:47which worried me because I knew he was susceptible to
01:50coughs, colds, pneumonia, chest infections, all the horrible stuff.
01:55In June 2023, the weekend of the beginning of everything going wrong,
02:03I was away at a wheelchair football tournament with my team.
02:06He stayed at home.
02:07He texts me, just general conversation.
02:10He says, oh, I've got a bit of a sore throat, so I've taken some paracetamol.
02:13And I thought, that's weird.
02:15He doesn't like to take medication.
02:17When I got home, I noticed he was quite, like, snotty.
02:20And I thought, oh, maybe it's hay fever or allergies,
02:23as some Americans call it.
02:26So Monday came, and I completely dosed him up on so much allergy relief
02:31to help relieve his symptoms.
02:33But they were getting worse throughout the day.
02:35So the next day, I sent him to the doctors.
02:37And he was sent home with some antibiotics,
02:40which didn't agree with his normal medication.
02:43Wednesday, his symptoms got a lot worse.
02:46So I sent him to A&E.
02:47He was sent home with some stronger medication,
02:51which would have worked if we had this right at the beginning.
02:54Thursday came, and the antibiotics went in his system quick enough.
02:59He was struggling to breathe.
03:00And I was taught by his practitioners,
03:04if he ever becomes ill, like, notice these signs,
03:07then you need to call an ambulance.
03:09So he gets taken away in the ambulance.
03:10And I notice something going on in my mind.
03:13And I knew that was the last time he was going to be in the house.
03:162 a.m., Friday morning, the hospital call.
03:22Ryan's in ICU.
03:23I was needed straight away.
03:24And I needed to call his parents.
03:26That was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make.
03:29I was hysterical.
03:30I go up there at 2 a.m., and I'm by his bedside until 4 a.m.,
03:35and where I was told, you need to get your energy up,
03:37go home while he's stable, and come back tomorrow.
03:41He had a bag of Haribo sweets.
03:43And I put the jelly one, like, ring on his ring finger,
03:47just messing about, because, like, I was engaged at the time,
03:50and I needed him to have a ring.
03:52And I just, you know, put it on his finger, and I messed around.
03:55Little did I know, less than eight hours later,
03:59I was going to be called back up the hospital.
04:04And those were going to be our wedding rings.
04:07On the Monday, the next day, it was my 25th birthday.
04:12And we were told Ryan was on end-of-life care.
04:15Ryan passed away at half past six in the evening.
04:18I'm so grateful to have had him in my life.
04:22He made me realize how precious life is,
04:29and made me just treasure every fucking moment.
04:35Because once it's gone, it's gone.
04:37And I miss him so much.