10-year-old girl battling leukemia shares 'wedding' vows with boyfriend in heartfelt ceremony

Love is a force that transcends the limitations of age, time and circumstance. For people facing the most adverse situations in life, it's often love that keeps them going and stops them from giving up. A heartwarming story of a 10-year-old girl, Emma Edwards, who participated in a mock wedding to her boyfriend, Daniel Marshall Christopher "DJ" Williams, is a true testament to love. The story proves how love allows individuals to find a mature connection that was far ahead for kids their age. They tied the knot in a big celebration on June 29, just 12 days before Emma passed away from leukemia, as per New York Post. She was initially diagnosed with the disease in April 2022. Despite what seemed to be a bleak situation, her parents, Alina and Aaron Edwards, were optimistic that she could be cured.

Emma was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), a common type of cancer among children. It's primarily curable and patients stand a fair chance to recover, provided they receive timely treatments. Her parents found out about it when they took her to the hospital after she fell over and doctors found the growing cancer in her leg bones. Unfortunately, Emma's parents were informed in June of this year that Emma's disease was incurable and she would only survive for a few more days.

Speaking to Kennedy News and Media, her mother, Alina, said, "We were going for another kind of treatment, and they told us that she probably had days to a week, not weeks. We didn't expect to hear that at all." She then stated how the news was like a "gut punch," never even thinking that it would reach such a critical stage. Around this time, Emma and DJ's mothers decided to make the best of Emma's last few days and began to plan a mock "wedding."

“Most kids want to go to Disneyland, but Emma wanted to get married, be a wife and have three kids,” Alina was quoted as saying by New York Post. “She was a sweetheart. I always say we must have made marriage look really fun because that’s all she wanted.” Reflecting on the spontaneous decision, she said, "It had to happen super fast. We threw it together in less than two days; everything ended up being donated." 

The final result was a pleasant garden wedding with roughly 100 guests in attendance. The event proved to be a bittersweet one as Emma's dad got to give her away. A friend of the parents officiated the wedding and a short verse from the Bible was read out by another friend. Emma's best friend also got to be her maid of honor. All of these small acts went a long way in making the event one that Emma's friends, family and acquaintances would remember for a long time. Alina absolutely adores her little son-in-law, describing him as the "sweetest soul."

According to the Mayo Clinic, the term "acute" is used to describe the disease because it progresses rapidly in making immature blood cells in contrast to mature ones. The condition also affects white blood cells in the blood.