On Dec. 23, 2016, school psychologist Heather Lindsay was diagnosed with the breast cancer that would eventually take her life. But even then, before the cancer became a death sentence, Lindsay’s boyfriend, David Mosher, wanted her to know that she wasn’t fighting this by herself.

“She didn’t know I was going to propose that night,” Mosher told WFSB in Hartford, Connecticut. “But I said to myself, she needs to know she’s not going to go down this road alone.”

That night, Mosher took Lindsay on a carriage ride and then got down on one knee to pop the question. She said yes. 

For the next year, the Connecticut couple would receive more bad news than good. Lindsay’s cancer was increasingly aggressive, and in September, they learned it had spread to her brain. 

Despite the bleak prognosis, Lindsay was determined to make it to her wedding day, set for Dec. 30, 2017. But even as that day drew closer, the doctors told Mosher there might not be enough time.

So on Dec. 22 in the hospital chapel, surrounded by family and friends, struggling through her vows due to sheer weakness, Heather married David.

Bridesmaid Christina Karas captured this touching image of the bride celebrating with what strength she had left: 

“We were losing her as we were all standing there,” said Karas. “The last words she spoke were her vows,” the bridesmaid told WFSB.

On Dec. 23, 2017, less than a day after fulfilling her dream of marrying David Mosher ”• and a year to the day after he proposed to her ”• Heather Mosher died.

“I saw her in a lot of pain and she didn’t give up until she married me,” David Mosher told NBC Connecticut. “It is so humbling that someone could love me like that.”

On Dec. 30, the day Heather Lindsay had planned to get married, she was laid to rest by her husband.

• This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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