Samantha Smith, do you take Zachary James Martin as your lawfully wedded husband?" Sam looks into Zach's eyes, cerulean blue like the sea, filled with pain and love and happiness and sorrow. She looks at his frail, fragile body, battered and torn. Zach was diagnosed with thyroid cancer two years ago. Sam, his long silky blond haired and bright blue eyed girlfriend looks back at all the beautiful memories they had created together, and the bright future ahead and she says confidently, "I want you forever and always. Through the good and the bad and the ugly. We'll grow old together, and always remember, whether happy or sad or whatever, we'll still love each other, forever and always.".
"I want you even when you're old and ugly and sick like this." She added, for good measure.
Everyone in the room laughed, and the chaplain's distinctive thundering laugh was the most obvious of them all. Nobody noticed a dozen crystal teardrops falling on the floor - it was just a few leaked tears. Zach's mother allowed herself that weakness, because she knew. She knew that her son's time was almost up. "Zachary James Martin, do you take Samantha Smith as your lawfully wedded wife?" The chaplain uttered. Everyone looked at Zach, as the tubes continued to pump medicines, water, blood into his system, forcing his battered heart to continue its swaggering rhythm. Zach found much difficulty inhaling and exhaling, even though breathing was what kept him alive. Each breath felt like fire. There was a terrible scorching burn at his throat. He seemed to be drowning in a dizzy whirling pool of red, so dark that it was almost black. A sharp stabbing in his chest, like serrated blades twisting cruelly; was it heartache, or was that his dying heart protesting? A persistent pain in his right temple started to throb, and he felt nauseous. Everything spun. He almost didn't realise that the chaplain had said his lines, and that it was his turn to finish his vows.