On a quiet January afternoon in a Toronto hospital room, a couple fulfilled the wish of the groom's dying brother by getting married in a small, intimate ceremony surrounded by a handful of family members and loved ones.
Eden and Chris Kotsiopoulos married on Jan. 28 in a hospital room at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in the city's downtown core.
Chris' brother, John, died of cancer just three days later. He was 41 years old.
Doctors diagnosed John with terminal cancer last October, giving him only about six months to live.
The couple had initially been planning to wed in 2016, but decided to move their wedding date up after John told Eden that he wanted to see his brother marry before he passed away.
"One day during a long chemotherapy session, John confessed to me that he wanted to see his baby brother get married before he passed away," she explained to CTVNews.ca.
So the couple moved their wedding up to Feb. 14, to ensure John could be there for the important life event. But his condition worsened, and he was moved from his home to a palliative care ward near the end of January.
It was at this point that arrangements were made for the couple to take their vows in his hospital room.
Eden told CTVNews.ca that while the small ceremony at Princess Margaret wasn't the wedding that she had initially planned, it was filled with love.
"It was extremely emotional because all of us knew that John wouldn't make it to the wedding in two weeks," she said. "We knew he was going; the mood was sombre but we were all there."
She said her brother-in-law was quite weak at the time, but was able to give a thumbs-up to the couple and sign their documents to serve as their witness.
"He had to do about three signatures and he was extremely weak, but his (partner) Anita was able to hold his arm as he signed," she said. "(It was) selfless, selfless love all over the place."
John's other brother, George, agreed, noting that the emotions felt in that room were so strong they transformed the ceremony.
"Yes, it was in a hospital room, yes it was inconvenient. But the amount of love in that room between the two families… it didn't feel like a hospital anymore," he said. "It was incredible. You couldn't ask for something better."
'I had to do this'
Eden said that she knew that moving the wedding up was the right thing to do, when she saw how John's condition was affecting her husband-to-be.
"I could see the pain in my now-husband's eyes when he knew his brother wouldn't make it to our wedding. I had to do this for him," she said. "I didn't care that it wasn't my fairytale wedding.
"Just the look on my husband's face when he looked at his brother and saw that he was happy and smiling for the first time in months was all I needed."
The couple later went forward with their planned Valentine's Day ceremony and reception, which was attended by 180 guests.
They made arrangements to ensure that John's presence was felt during the reception, even placing a photo of him at the head table with the other family members.
At their speech during the dinner reception, the couple told their guests about their smaller legal ceremony at the hospital.
"The reaction we got is what prompted me to bring it to the world," Eden said.
She added that she's also sharing her story to let her family know how much she loved John.
"He was known around the community as the greatest hugger…when I say bear hug, I mean heck of a bear hug," she said with a laugh.
"I considered John my brother, not just my brother-in-law. I considered him my friend, and I love my family and I would do anything for them."
