Mansfield Couple Puts Rush On Wedding After Devastating Diagnosis
BOSTON (CBS) --- What did Erick Denizard do when he found out he has a terminal illness? Rush into marriage.
He met Jennifer Brennan more than four years ago through a dating service, and immediately they clicked. "She's the woman of my dreams, so I want her to be my wife," he says. They both broke down in tears of happiness when he proposed while they were on a cruise. "Luckily she did say yes very quickly," he remembers. They planned an August 2014 wedding.
Then came the diagnosis that changed everything. Denizard went to the doctor for a routine exam. The doctor found blood clots, and did a CT scan that showed dark spots on his liver. A biopsy revealed stage four pancreatic cancer. He has six months to a year to live.
"It's just devastating," says Brennan. " You finally get to a point where you're extremely happy with someone and you plan to spend the rest of your life doing the things that you want to do, and you don't know how you're going to make it all happen."
In the face of that news, the couple put a rush on the wedding. "I want to spend every minute being with him, taking care of him," says Brennan.
Friends rallied online. Through Facebook and a fundraising site called Gofundme, donors and volunteers are planning the couple's dream wedding for them, and a lot sooner than they'd planned. The ceremony is January 24th, in Topsfield. All they have to do is show up.
Tuesday, the couple went to the town clerk's office in their hometown of Mansfield, and applied for their marriage license. They were beaming as they left hand-in-hand. "We don't look towards the end," says Brennan. "…but it's just part of who he is, and I want to keep that part of who he is with me."
