Reece Fleming, a dying eight-year-old boy “married” his “special friend” Elleanor Pursglove after proposing to her at a laser tag party.

Reece was diagnosed with leukemia in July 2004, and fought the disease for four years. In May, doctors told his family that the little boy had only weeks to live.

Reece’s mom, upon finding out that she was going to lose her little boy said “when we found out that we only had a few weeks with him we tried to do absolutely everything with him that we could”.

Including arranging a “wedding” for Reece and his sweetheart. Reece and Ellie had been what his mother calls “special friends” for years, until they had a “break up”. In recent months, though, Ellie visited Reece in the hospital and when his parents threw their ailing little boy a party, Reece popped the question to Elleanor.

The children’s parents arranged a ceremony and party. On July 4th, the duo were “married”. They went out to dinner in the mayor’s limousine, there were rings, a “marriage certificate”, and an officiant on-hand.

Reece was so happy to have been allowed this wish that he said “I can go now”.

Reece passed away the very next day.

At his funeral, the mourners followed his horse-drawn hearse on foot.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a pretty cynical, less than mushy person, and this made tears well up in my eyes. The capacity of children to love and show exceeding bravery in the face of difficult situations is a lesson we could all stand to heed.

Photo Credit: Raymonds Press Agency