GIRL, 10, WITH LEUKEMIA GOT HER WEDDING DAYS BEFORE DYING
Emma Brooks Edwards, a 10-year-old from Walnut Cove, North Carolina, who was dying of leukemia, got the wedding she asked for when her family threw a mock wedding for her and her boyfriend, Daniel Marshall Christopher “DJ” Williams Jr., on June 29, 2023, the Times of India reported. She had wanted it more than any trip or treat, and she died 12 days later.
The ceremony was symbolic, not a legal marriage. It was a way to give a little girl the thing she had her heart set on.
Her mother, Alina Edwards, told Tyla, “Most kids want to go to Disneyland but Emma wanted to get married, be a wife and have three kids.”
A wedding thrown together in under two days
Emma and DJ had known each other since third grade, according to The Express and India Today. When they were eight, they tried to hold a wedding at their elementary school, but a teacher told them they could not marry there, the New York Post reported.
Emma was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in April 2022, according to the outlets covering her story. NDTV reported that a fall led her family to take her to the hospital, where medics found cancer in the bones in her legs.
In June 2023, the family learned the cancer was incurable. “We were going for another kind of treatment, and they told us that she probably had days to a week, not weeks,” Alina told NDTV.
With so little time, Alina and DJ’s mother organized the wedding themselves, according to the New York Post and NDTV.
“It had to happen super fast. We threw it together in less than two days; everything ended up being donated,” Alina said.
About 100 guests came to the garden ceremony. Emma’s father, Aaron, walked her down the aisle, a friend officiated and another friend read a Bible verse. Emma’s best friend served as maid of honor.
Her parents said they were grateful they had been able to help her reach her dream before she died.
Emma’s final days
Emma died on July 11, 2023, 12 days after the ceremony.
Hayworth-Miller Funeral Homes & Crematory listed her interests in her obituary as arts and crafts, practical jokes, family and friends, and Jesus. The obituary named DJ among her survivors and called him her “husband.”
A celebration of life and visitation was set for July 16, 2023, at Hayworth-Miller Silas Creek Chapel.
