Adam and Hollie were like any other bride and groom in so many ways: deeply in love, looking forward to the future and excited to start a family.
However, Adam and Hollie are anything but ordinary. The pair came to be together through extraordinary circumstances and extraordinary love. Adam was diagnosed with Lyme disease and Hollie was his nurse.
She was assigned to take care of him three hours a day, every week, for a year. It wasn't hard to get to know the guy. These closeness between nurse and patient can sometimes end in romance, we've seen this before with Taylor Morris, a wounded veteran, and his nurse Danielle.
As she got closer to Adam there were two things Hollie noticed about him: his big heart and his diagnosis. Hollie believed there was something more to the so-called Lyme disease.
After taking her advice, Adam discovered that he had the same condition his father did, ALS, a condition where the muscles slowly waste away and for which there is no cure.
After hearing the diagnosis Hollie didn't leave his side; in a moment where most people would abandon ship, Hollie agreed to marry Adam — even though she knew time was running out.
See Hollie and Adam's amazing love story below.
"I am a nurse, Adam was a patient. It all started from there. As Adam was normal and healthy as can be, I never really noticed him until this strong, handsome man walked in our office door pushing a wheelchair. Ever since that appointment, I was assigned to his case to start biweekly treatments in an exam room for three hours a day, every week for a year."
Soon after Hollie began taking care of Adam, he sent her this message:
“I wake up everyday and see you next to me and think to myself how lucky I am. I open my eyes and see you and I just smile inside… When you dress me and feed me and give me my shots, I feel so loved by you. I wish I could help more. Then when you load Josh [Hollie's son from a previous marriage] and I up in the wheelchair and wheel us out, I feel like a real family and I’m so happy.”
"Yes, you tend to get to know a person rather well seeing them that often! His smile, laugh, and frequent ‘courtship poetry is what made me fall in love. At first we were treating Lyme Disease, but my heart and mind were telling me otherwise. Once I finally got Adam on board, we went to one of the top Neurologist in UCLA. Our end diagnosis: ALS," Hollie writes.
When Adam discovered his Lyme Disease was actually ALS, he realized that he wanted to spend the rest of his life wife Hollie.
"I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want my last days seeing your face, kissing your lips, sleeping by your side. I understand if you don’t want this burden on you. But if you want me, I want to marry YOU. What do you say?" Adam proposed.
"I wouldn’t want it any other way. Yes, I want to take care of you and make sure you get the best care possible," she said with tears.
"Our first dance was one to remember by all as well. I delicately sat on his lap, one arm around the headrest of his wheel chair and my head on his chest. I kept whispering in his ear, ‘Don’t go too fast or I’ll fall ok? That would be so embarrassing!" Hollie remembers. "I would never let you fall…," Adam replied.
Although Hollie admits that the ticking-time bomb of ALS was on her mind the entire time, Adam gave her a perfect wedding. The couple decided on every detail together, including her dress. It was the perfect day.
"That day was the best day ever. I never thought I would have a beautiful wedding, but every detail was perfect," she said.
The couple was engaged in 2011, married in 2012, and one year later — as they had predicted — Adam passed away.
"One of the many things that helped me get through all of this —watching him waste away and not being able to do anything about it — was when he said to me: 'Only the good die young. I love you and I’ll see you again,'" Hollie says.
We couldn't have said it better.
Please SHARE if you believe, although it may not have been the longest love, Hollie and Adam's was the most extraordinary!
