Jennifer Korth, 6 Months To Live, Married Longtime Love — Share The Inspiring Wisdom She Left Behind

Jennifer Korth, was Jennifer Hutcheson until July 6 when she married the love of her life, her romantic partner of nine years, Allen Korth. But their wedding was not just another romantic story. Jennifer Korth had been battling esophageal cancer for the past five years — first diagnosed at age 25.

The Flint, Michigan, woman had endured seven rounds of chemotherapy, as well as surgery and multiple radiation treatments. Then, in February, she was told by doctors that she had at most six months to live. The woman whose “smile lights up a room” had just two wishes for her final months: the first of which was to celebrate her 30th birthday, which she happily did in March.

Her second wish was to marry Allen Korth, whom she met nine years ago. She was just 21 at the time, and he was 40. Through all of her cancer treatments, her pain, weight loss, hair loss, and all of her other ordeals, Allen was always with her.

And of course he was there on July 6 for the simple ceremony at a home in Fenton, Michigan, with Jennifer in a wheelchair due to her exhaustion, but never losing her smile.

“My breath was taken away and my eyes welled up,” said Allen, recalling the moment he saw her in her wedding dress. “I hadn’t seen a sight more beautiful in my entire life.”

Jennifer Korth passed away on Monday, August 4. But she left behind a legacy of hope and a positive outlook that all of her friends say they will never forget.

“She always thinks of other people first,” said her maid of honor, Alexis Cook. “There have been horrible days. If I’m having a bad day she’s more worried about me. She makes me want to be better and not complain so much and see the good stuff in life more than the bad. That’s the biggest part of knowing her is seeing someone that’s a genuinely good person,that would do anything for anybody but never ask for anything in return.”

In July, Jennifer offered her own wisdom to anyone else going through troubles in their lives.

“Try not to be so wound up on the stuff you’re going through,” she said. “Everybody thinks what they’re going through is the worst thing. Try to do something good for someone else. The way I live is I want for myself just to leave the world better than it was before. I don’t know if I’ve done that, but I’m trying. Smile, even when it sucks. I smile to make other people’s day change. Just remember, other people are going through stuff around you.”

Jennifer and Allen Korth had wanted to be married for a long time, but problems with her insurance company made financing a wedding impossible. Their wedding in July was arranged by Wish Upon A Wedding, a charity that sets up weddings for couples in which one of the two is terminally ill.