Just five hours before his death, a 20-year-old Army veteran from Iowa was able to fulfill his final wish of marrying his beloved.
Tristin Laue and Tianna were married on April 27, even though he suffered from rare and incurable fibrolamellar liver cancer, KWWL 7 News reported.
Tristan’s last wish was to marry Tianna, so he proposed to her on Easter Sunday and the couple married the following weekend. They had a small ceremony in Tristan’s parent’s backyard. Laue’s mother, Debbie, took to social media to quickly find a tent for the wedding reception, along with decorations and a wedding dress
“He said he wanted to make sure I wanted it because he was in rough shape and wanted to be fair to me. And I said of course I wanted to marry him. I always told him it wasn’t that easy to get rid of me, so I’d always be there,” Tianna said, Fox 5 News reported.
An Iowa National Guard veteran spent the last few hours of his life fulfilling a wish to marry the love of his life before passing away from a rare form of liver cancer. ❤️ https://t.co/w9LwBtKmcL #gooddaydc
— FOX 5 DC (@fox5dc) May 8, 2019
Tianna Laue said, “He’s the love of my life. And even like talking to my mom and everything, she said some people don’t get what you two had in the amount of time, like they’ll be together for years and still not have the same connection that you guys did.”
The pair also shared a birthday, both were born on May 11. “Tristin actually wanted (the ceremony) on our birthday,” Tianna said.
She described Tristan as an incredibly smart man who “almost always” knew the answers to “Jeopardy.”
She added, “Make sure you tell people you love them because you never know when you won’t be able to.”
Tristan’s dad, Mitch Laue said, “Tianna was his angel. Now, he can be hers.”
Tristin received a medical discharge from the U.S. Army in April 2018, after serving for almost two years.
He then attended the University of Northern Iowa for a year. After finishing his last semester in engineering design, the university awarded him with a completion certificate during a university ceremony. They told Tristan, “Just the way you conduct and carry yourself. I was like wow this is officer material.”
Tristan’s funeral services were held last weekend in Waverly. He was honored with full military rites by the Army Honor Guard.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with final expenses and to pay for a memorial bench with his name on the Chickasaw Legacy Pathway. As of Friday, more than $4,800 had been raised.
