Fifteen month ago Bill Sword and Venus Ramirez could never have imagined they would be planning a wedding, let alone to each other.
In 2010, Venus Ramirez, lost her husband, George Oldroyd after a year-long fight with lung cancer.
Meanwhile, Bill Sword's wife Lynn, was losing her own battle with lung cancer.
Both Oldroyd and Lynn Sword spent their last days at the Rotary Hospice House in Prince George.
"We didn't really pay attention to each other [at first] because we were taking care of our spouses," said Ramirez, who married her dying partner on January 7 at the hospice house. A day later Lynn Sword was transferred to the hospice house.
"She gave me a piece of [their] wedding cake," joked Sword.
Three weeks later Oldroyd died. Soon after on March 7, Sword's wife also passed away.
A month later, Sword was at Pine Centre Mall getting ready to pack up his trailer and go on the road for the summer, when he ran into Ramirez.
"I thought, I'm unemployed and I don't have a wife, I'm just going to hit the road and live in this [trailer] for the summer," said Sword.
Instead, he asked her if she'd like to get some dinner.
In a weird twist of fate, they ended up eating at the restaurant where Ramirez had met Oldroyd.
"We talked for four hours. She was interesting, and kept my attention. We didn't have anything to hide from each other because we were both suffering," said Sword.
Sword thought there was a possibility of something happening between the two of them even if it was just a close friendship.
It took him a week to get the nerve to knock on her door because they hadn't exchanged contact information over dinner.
"I don't even know if we knew each other's last name. Because it was just a casual [meal]," said Sword.
In the months that followed they fell in love.
"I loved my wife and I know [Venus] loved her husband. If they were still here we'd still be with them, we wouldn't be together," said Sword candidly.
Six months later they drove to Saskatchewan, "I had to find out what kind of country girl I had. I had the [engagement] ring in the glove box for months waiting to give it to her. I'd wanted to give it to her so many times but I held off."
He proposed in Edmonton, on the way back to Prince George.
They are getting married on June 26 and are planning a honeymoon next year to visit Ramirez's family in the Philippines.
"I've learned that God will provide again and again. I [believed] that until my wife got sick and my prayers didn't get answered. Then Venus came along and healed my broken heart. She's my girl and she's restored my faith in God."
