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Raul Hinojosa: Texas Man Marries Fiancee Hours Before He Dies Of Cancer

By Rahul Srinivas
Published on: 10:38 PST, Dec 15, 2016

The story of Raul Hinojosa, a 33-year-old man from Texas who died hours after he married his long-time fiancee, is beginning to go viral across the nation as you read this.

According to a CNN report, Raul, who was battling blood cancer (leukemia) for the past couple of years, was aware that he would not be around for much longer after he was admitted to the critical care unit of a hospital in Amarillo. For the same reason, he asked for the hospital chaplain to be called so that he could express his last wishes before he passes away. Last Friday, when the chaplain asked Raul what his final wish was, he expressed his desire to marry Yvonne Lamas, his girlfriend and fiancee of 11 years. Hardly able to speak, he just uttered the following words, pointing towards Yvonne.

“I want to marry her.”

In an interview with CNN later, Yvonne recalls the day.

“I looked around the room, and said ‘Who?’ That was just the way we played,” she recounts.

While the chaplain was completely unprepared for a wedding request from a dying patient, she nevertheless decided to go ahead with the plan. Family members and hospital staff helped each other and hurried to put a wedding together, right inside the room where Raul was being treated. Another hospital staff took the responsibility of taking Yvonne to a courthouse to acquire a marriage license. When the judge was told about the situation in which the wedding was being organized, he was kind enough to waive off the normal 72-hour waiting period, Lamas confirmed.

There was too little time for anyone to shop for their wedding outfits. However, on the day, the director of the hospital’s critical care unit was wearing a coat and tie to work — which usually isn’t the case. When he heard about the wedding and the fact that the groom did not have a proper suit and he was not in a condition to go out and shop for one, he decided to lend what he was wearing to Raul. Later, he revealed that he attended his daughter’s Christmas program that morning, which explains why he was wearing a coat and tie.

Meanwhile, the staff at the hospital’s cafeteria managed to bake a wedding cake for the couple-to-be. Yvonne’s relatives also managed to get a wedding dress for her — just in time. Within hours of Raul’s request, the team had set the stage for a wedding. Family members took an 18-minute video of the entire wedding in which Raul is seen fulfilling his dying wish. In the video, Lamas is seen being escorted down the aisle by her father. Describing her feelings, Lamas later told CNN.

“When I walked down the aisle and saw him in the suit, he just took my breath away. He was so handsome. It was priceless.”

The heartbreaking video can be seen below.

https://www.facebook.com/domingo.rodriguez.16/videos/vb.100001297353733/1189708941082340/

In the video, the chaplain recounted the story of the couple.

“When this illness was diagnosed. Yvonne promised she would never leave him. She would be with him. They would do this together,” she is heard saying.

Within a few minutes, the long-time couple were finally married.

Just 36 hours after the wedding took place, Raul Hinojosa lost his battle to cancer and passed away. Heartbroken, Yvonne had a hard time controlling her tears when she recounted their story to CNN. Together for 11 years, Yvonne described Raul as a “very respectful, very romantic” man.

“He always wanted to give me the world. He knew how to put a smile on my face no matter the situation.”

The couple have a 9-year-old son who lives with three other daughters Yvonne had from a previous marriage. Raul, however, took care of the other kids as if they were his own. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for the family, details of which you would be able to read here.

[Featured Image by GoFundMe]

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