‘You just don’t see love like this’: With months to live, high school senior marries
INDIANAPOLIS -They stood at the white altar on her parents’ driveway, in the exact spot where Chase Smith had parked his truck to pick up Sadie Mills for their first date. That spot on the driveway where the two 18-year-olds now stood to exchange their wedding vows was the same spot where six months before they’d shared their first kiss, full of sweet teenage love and new beginnings.
High school love. It’s the great American love story. Young love and all of that.
But this story takes a different turn because Chase comes down with a very aggressive form of cancer. Suddenly, that college, marriage, and happily ever after looks very different.
Here’s where it gets real. 18 years old and four months to live. It makes sense that Sadie walked. Who needs that for a high school romance?
Maybe we could see her hanging by his side, encouraging and supporting him. But, that wasn’t Sadie and Chase.
They got married. Happily ever after, which will last for about 4 months – along with battling cancer and everything that goes with that. It’s a guaranteed in sickness and in not health.
This is a decision that will follow Sadie for life. She will have faced death head on beside Chase. Most likely cancer will take his life and she will be left. Having loved. Having lost. And now rebuilding.
I’m sure all those conversations were had with her parents. But she made a decision of love.
In a world that seems to be fight commitment and going all in; where being extreme is almost mocked, Sadie points to a different mind set. All in. Loving hard.
I’m encouraged to “do good” at a deeper level. And our hearts are with you, Sadie and Chase.