A Guelph couple has moved up their wedding plans so their terminally-ill daughter can be part of the big day.
Sarah Rogers and her fiancé Karl Dovick want to make sure five-year-old Autumn can be part of their wedding, so they are hastily putting it together.
Autumn, Sarah's daughter and Karl's step-daughter, has stage four metastatic neuroblastoma, a cancer effecting the nervous system. She and her family recently received the news she hasn’t responded to treatments and only has a couple months left to live.
Once they received the news they decided it was time to get married because all Sarah wanted was for Autumn to be at their wedding.
Dovick told Rogers if he can't be a legal, on paper step-father for Autumn when the time comes, it will break his heart because she is his daughter to him.
"We have things we need her there for in our lives and this is definitely one of them," said Rogers.
Planning an impromptu wedding has been a bit overwhelming but the couple has received so much support from their community yet again said Dovick. When their daughter was first diagnosed people would bring over meals, offer to clean their house and a GoFundMe campaign started by their neighbour raised over $30,000.
“To say that we're overwhelmed by the support is literally an understatement,” said Dovick.
He had posted on the Facebook group Overheard at Guelph to ask for suggestions of any venues that can accommodate 80 to 100 people for a wedding in either November or December. The post received over 400 comments, 700 shares and hundreds of messages.
People offered venue suggestions, cakes, decorations, music and wedding dresses.
“Sarah and I were looking at each other, we're sitting on the couch of Ronald McDonald House looking at each other going ‘is this real?'” said Dovick.
“It shows Autumn, how much people care and how much people love her and how much she's important to so many people.”
Rogers and Dovick became friends with the family of Addison Hill, the 14-year-old from Elora who died earlier this summer after battling cancer. At one point Autumn and Addison were in rooms beside each other at the SickKids hospital.
“Them being here and helping us and reminding us that we're not alone and we're not going to be alone through this journey. And even after this journey, that's, I think, is the part that helps the most,” Dovick said.
Up until recently Rogers and Dovick hadn’t been engaged during Autumn’s treatment. After receiving the news she hadn’t been responding to treatment they were in the car, both with tears in their eyes and they just knew it was time, he said.
He was browsing through engagement rings online when GuelphToday reached him by phone at the Ronald McDonald House.
“Even if we know what the end will be, Autumn’s fight will never end, that will never ever end. We're gonna keep fighting for change, or even keep fighting for awareness,” said Dovick.
“You know, we're gonna keep helping SickKids and the doctors and their oncologists and the research teams and you know, that's never going to stop.”
In lieu of gifts, the couple are asking wedding guests to donate to SickKids.
He said he couldn’t count the number of rounds of chemo, immunotherapy and radiation she had gone through. Let alone the surgery, needles, medicine and NG tubes.
“Yet, she gets out of the hospital and she’s a happy kid.”
She will be the flower girl at the wedding. She practiced being a flower girl tossing the autumn leaves with a friend and told them she was the flower girl and he was the ring bearer.
Autumn said she wants to wear a red dress, red like a rose.
“This is going to be an amazing wedding and amazing event, an amazing day, night for everyone there for Autumn. And I, again, say this, we owe this to Guelph, we owe this to the people of Guelph,” Dovick said.
"It'll be so elegant, so wonderful and it's keeping her in mind," said Rogers.
"I'm so glad I moved there. I mean I've never experienced that type of community anywhere, before Guelph," she said.
He said he and Rogers want everyday to be a happy day for Autumn and to make everyday count.
