For two years, Jayla spent her home away from home at the Children’s Medical Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Dallas, TX where she met her future husband and leukemia patient, Jose when he was 5. So after two years of sharing a bond that most people will never understand, the parents of both children gave Jayla her dying wish.
Jayla was the niece of a very close friend of mine.
A young couple is starting their lives together after an extravagant wedding.
The nine-year-old bride and seven-year-old groom, both cancer patients, were married Sunday. Jayla Cooper and Jose Griggs vowed to be friends forever.
“I love him, and it was just really important to me,” said Jayla. “I had fun dancing with my dad and with him and my granny.”
Home video shows Jerrod Cooper walking his daughter down the aisle. These are the moments he cherishes after being told she only has a few weeks to live.
“It’s really hard,” he said. “It’s something you never wanna go through or imagine.”
Jayla and Jose were both diagnosed with leukemia two years ago. They spent most of their days together at Children’s Medical Hospital in Dallas, but Jose is actually recovering. He wants the same for Jayla.
“He knows where she’s going, but he doesn’t want her to go,” said Charla Griggs, Jose’s mother. “He’s seven years old and he’s having a hard time dealing with this.”
Because of the time she has left, the family tries to enjoy every moment with Jayla, who is teaching others to live life to the fullest.
“She’s only nine. All I can do is give her what she wants. I give and give, because I don’t know what else to do,” said Lisa Cooper, Jayla’s mother.
The parents took Jose and Jayla to Great Wolf Lodge for their honeymoon.
When people hear of little children getting married, they believe it to be something creepy or wrong. Tales of religious hysteria, abuse or other unsettling things are associated with child marriage. But one story about a child getting married is tragic for completely different reasons. 9-year-old bride Jayla Cooper was married to her 7-year-old friend in Dallas on Sunday. Jayla Cooper became a 9-year-old-bride because it is one of the last things she can do while alive.
Jayla Cooper has been living with leukemia for two years, and is about to lose that fight. Cooper’s childhood leukemia is expected to finally claim her life within two weeks. To mark her final weeks on Earth, Jayla Cooper became the 9-year-old-bride of a fellow leukemia patient and friend, 7-year-old Jose Griggs.
The two children were married on Sunday, vowing to be “friends forever.” Cooper and Griggs met while being treated at the Children’s Medical Hospital in Dallas. The young husband and wife celebrated their union at the Great Wolf Lodge water park in Grapevine, Texas.
A home video was released of Jayla being walked down the aisle by her father, Jerrod Cooper. Jayla told Dallas’s CBS 11 news that she had fun dancing with him, her “granny” and her husband.
Unlike Jayla Cooper, Jose Griggs is on the road to recovery from his leukemia. But doctors are convinced that Cooper is on a different path.
Cooper is not the only person to turn to marriage near the end of her life. In London, a dying reality TV star, Jade Goody, is sparking national debate with her plans to not only get married now, but to have the wedding filmed as part of a TV special.
Goody was one of the stars of the 2002 edition of London’s Big Brother, but got diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer last week. As a result, Goody sold the TV rights to her wedding with fiancee Jack Tweed, in order to raise money for her sons.
The two were married on Sunday, as it was filmed by TV cameras as per Goody’s wishes. Her desire to have her dying weeks filmed by reality television has made national news in Britain, and triggered national debate.
This is Ashli 