A woman who has become known as the "one-hour wife" has opened up about her heartbreaking wedding day as her husband died moments after they exchanged vows.
Johnnie Davis and her new husband Toraze had just tied the knot surrounded by family and friends, but tragedy struck as the happy couple stepped out of the church.
As Johnnie recalled in an interview with the Sun: "Toraze turned to me and kept repeating 'I can’t breathe I’m so hot, I need some water.'"
Initially attributing it to a possible panic attack due to the hot weather and his suit, Johnnie's world quickly crumbled as Toraze collapsed on the ground beside her.
Within minutes, an ambulance arrived at the scene, and paramedics rushed Toraze to the hospital. The sudden and surreal turn of events left Johnnie in disbelief. "Only ten minutes before, we’d finished saying our wedding vows, promising to cherish each other until death do us part," she recounted
Upon reaching the hospital, Johnnie was forced to wait outside as doctors desperately tried to resuscitate her newlywed husband. The agonizing 40-minute wait ended with the devastating news that Toraze had suffered a fatal cardiac arrest, caused by a blood clot that had traveled to his heart.
"He’d had a cardiac arrest in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and there was nothing that they could do to save him," Johnnie said.
The following weeks blurred into a painful haze for Johnnie, who found solace in the support of friends and family. To add to the heartbreak, their four-year-old daughter, O’Ceann, constantly asked about her father.
"I had to try and imagine life now without him," said Johnnie. Her recent losses included her father to leukemia in February, another daughter's father a few months prior, and a cousin also in February.
Reflecting on the brief but cherished moments of their wedding day, Johnnie said: "I thought I was the luckiest woman alive to have married Toraze. He was such a gentle giant."
Toraze proposed to Johnnie in January 2017, and their daughter was born 18 months later. He embraced fatherhood wholeheartedly, and the couple eagerly looked forward to their wedding day in June of the following year.
Now, Johnnie faces the challenge of raising their daughter alone, ensuring she remembers her father. "I may have only had him as a husband for an hour of my life, but I’ll make sure his memory lasts a lifetime."
A GoFundMe page was set up to support Johnnie and her family during this difficult time, and at the time of writing it has raised just over $25,000 of an intended $100,000 target.
Our thoughts are with Johnnie and her family during this difficult time.
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