Today is different

Whose morning doesn’t start with sorting out junk mail? What about those Fw: Fwd: FW: Fwd: Fw: mass e-mails? I don’t like them either: on one hand they normally come from someone you know, on the other hand it is always some teary or banal impersonal message and a request to resend the letter to 15 (make it 100) your best friends. I never do. Unless today. I'll skip the text and post these photos. The message? You'll figure it out.

Have a great day and don’t forget to tell your loved ones you love them.

Love,

AB

On January 15, 2005, twenty-one-year-old Katie—the girl “with a contagious smile and unrelenting optimism” who had been battling cancer for three years—married twenty-three-year-old Lapeer County sheriff’s deputy Nick Goodwin, her high school sweetheart and the love of her life, at Church of Christ in Hazel Park, Michigan.

Photos were taken by Romain Blanquart.

Katie Kirkpatrick and her fiance, Nick, rest prior to their wedding. Katie has terminal cancer and spends hours in chemotherapy. Here Nick waits while she finishes one of the sessions.

Even in pain and dealing with her organs shutting down, with the help of morphine, Katie took care of every single wedding plan. Her dress had to be adjusted several times due to her constant weight loss.

An expected guest was her oxygen tank. Katie had to use it during the ceremony and reception. Katie's parents look on.

Katie, in a wheelchair, listening to her husband and friends serenading her

In the middle of the party Katie had to rest for a bit and catch her breath. The pain doesn't allow her to stand for long periods of time.

Katie passed away just five days after her wedding at the McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint, Michigan

Nick said of the wedding and Katie’s passing:

It was wonderful. It was a dream come true. She was the most beautiful angel ever—just caring and selfless, and such an inspiration to everyone. She was always smiling no matter what happened, no matter what news she got. She was as close to perfect as they come.