Dublin couple Patrick Murphy and Tracey Jacob wed on learning that Murphy had just three months to live.
A Dublin couple is said to have had a day of “pure happiness” when they wed on learning the groom had terminal cancer. Patrick Murphy, 52, was diagnosed with throat cancer in October 2017 but in May of this year was told his cancer had spread to other parts of his body and he now has just three months to live.
And so on June 14, he finally married his long-term partner Tracey Jacob, 41, in what they described as the “happiest day of our lives.” Although the couple has been together for 17 years and has a four-year-old daughter Lily together, they had always put marriage on the long finger, believing they had the rest of their lives to get around to it.
"We've known each other all our lives. We always just said 'we'll get married someday' until Pat got sick in October," Tracey told Independent.ie.
"You think you have time, but when things like this happen you realize you don't have that time. You'd regret not making those happy memories, so we decided to just do it."
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Patrick and Tracey on their wedding day.
Once they were told that their time together was to be significantly shorter than they’d hoped, the couple took the wedding off the backburner and in a whirlwind few weeks put the big day together.
"It was literally a whirlwind, within three weeks it was planned and done, but we couldn't have done it without our family. They all pooled together and helped out," Tracey said.
"I couldn’t thank the Long Mile enough, where we had our wedding reception. They were fantastic and so supportive.
"It was an absolutely beautiful day. It was a day of very mixed emotions- of joy, of tears. It was so emotional for everyone, but it really was the happiest day of our lives,” she added.
"I'm so happy we did it because life is too short."
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