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- Feb 12, 2007
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9 year old child bride in Texas reminds us of life and love
The news out of Texas reminds us of life, how precious it is, and love, how giving it must be. A young couple is starting their lives together after an extravagant wedding.
The nine-year-old bride and seven-year-old groom, both cancer patients, were married Sunday. Jayla Cooper and Jose Griggs vowed to be friends forever.
Home video shows Jerrod Cooper walking his daughter down the aisle. These are the moments he cherishes after being told she only has a few weeks to live.
"It's really hard," he said. "It's something you never wanna go through or imagine."
Jayla and Jose were both diagnosed with leukemia two years ago. They spent most of their days together at Children's Medical Hospital in Dallas, but Jose is actually recovering. He wants the same for Jayla.
"He knows where she's going, but he doesn't want her to go," said Charla Griggs, Jose's mother. "He's seven years old and he's having a hard time dealing with this."
Because of the time she has left, the family tries to enjoy every moment with Jayla, who is teaching others to live life to the fullest.
The parents took Jose and Jayla to Great Wolf Lodge for their honeymoon.
With only a few weeks left of her life, 9-year-old Jayla Cooper fulfilled a dream as friends and family watched on in bittersweet delight.
Wedding bells rang this past Sunday for a rather uncommon bride and groom, 9-year-old Jayla and her now husband, 7-year-old Jose Griggs. But this union of children isn't due to some twisted religious rite.
Jayla cooper was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago and according to doctors, has come to the end of her path. Childhood leukemia, depending upon the type, has improved with treatment over the years but there is still a rate of recidivation either due to malignancies or later recurrences.
For two years, Jayla spent her home away from home at the Children's Medical Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Dallas, TX where she met her future husband and leukemia patient, Jose when he was 5. So after two years of sharing a bond that most people will never understand, the parents of both children gave Jayla her dying wish.
On the biggest day of her life, the little girl continued to show others how to live life to the fullest, smiling brightly as she walked beside her father, Jerrod Cooper, down the isle adorned in a lovely white gown. For the time, every person in the room seemed to have set aside any feeling other than joy for the couple, grasping tightly to the moments that remain.
As for the 7-year-old groom, his mother said in the article that "he's having a hard time dealing with this" because he is aware that she is dying and he doesn't want her to "go." Jose is recovering from his leukemia.
So in an effort to fulfill as much of her child's dreams as possible, Lisa Cooper continues to give her daughter all that she can so that her last days here on earth are more than hospital beds and distressed family members.
The happy couple spent their honey moon at Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor family waterpark in Grapevine, TX complete with waterslides, kiddie spa and arcade. A honeymooners paradise…for a couple of kids.
Source: the church of jesus christ
abcnews
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