But after the final screening, the doctor delivered news that would again test their strength. A number of small tumors had shown up in his lungs. As the oncologist spoke, Cady stood, walked across the examination room to Jordan and whispered in his ear: “I’m getting married to you. And I’m going to walk through this journey with you, this time as your wife.”
When she recalls that moment now, Cady says it was almost like a dream. “I don’t remember even thinking about it, my feet were just walking, my mouth saying the words. It wasn’t a debate. There wasn’t a question in my mind that I was supposed to be with him.”
Though the trip had taken a terrible turn, and news of Jordan’s diagnosis had rocked their world, Cady felt an incredible peace.
“It felt like I was made for this moment, to be with Jordan and to fight this with him,” she says. “But at the same time it’s also scary because the one person you love more than anything in the world is going to have to go through extreme suffering, and that was frightening to me.”
Four weeks later, with the funding, time, love and support of their incredible community, the couple was married.
The reception had baked goods made by neighbors, the venue was donated by friends. The now Mr. and Mrs. Jordan Lewis spent their honeymoon night in a suite at the Mayo Hotel. That night they stood on the rooftop together for the third time—now as a married couple.
Jordan and Cady were strong. They are born fighters, and regardless of the bad news that continued to follow, they clung tight to their faith and to each other.
Cady talks about their struggle in true biblical fashion, as if they were one person—each fighting half of the same fight. He was physically fighting cancer, while she was fighting the emotions that continuously flooded them. Together they were wholly consumed with surviving.
After the cancer had spread throughout Jordan’s body, one doctor told him that he would be blind within the week. That evening, Jordan took to the couple’s blog and shared a glimpse of his determination and perseverance. Jordan wrote, “Blindness is not an option. Death is not an option. I will live a long prosperous life with perfect vision. I write this as a call to arms. A desperate plea for prayer and faith.”
No matter his physical state, they loved each other deeply and selflessly. The kind of love that some people only dream of. He gathered birthday presents for her at his weakest, and she traveled across the country with him for treatments. When he lost his mobility, Cady bought him a wheelchair and cried in a bathroom stall the first time they had to use it in public.
On their way back to Raleigh from Tulsa, she wheeled him up to a handicap table at a restaurant and remembers thinking, “No one knows my husband is the strongest man in the world. No one knows that he is six feet tall. They only see he is in a wheelchair.“
Despite Jordan’s fatal diagnosis, their marriage was filled with happiness and joy. They chose to focus on their three years of wonderful memories together, and not fear the future.
Of their nine months of marriage, they spent three together in his hospital bed.
On March 20, 2014, Jordan took his last breath at the age of 23. As he exhaled one final time, Cady’s lips hovered over his, as she whispered “Jesus” like a prayer. It was the last kiss they ever shared.
She later wrote on their blog, “Every moment was so rich in love and life that it seemed like we truly were married ’75 plus years.’ God let me be with His precious lamb for almost nine months, and although it didn’t seem long enough to me, I still got the depth of a pure and fearless love that one would get in 75 years of marriage. I got my dream, but in a different way than I had hoped.”
As C.S. Lewis describes it, when one loses a spouse they become an amputee. We have to re-learn how to live life without the other half.
Cady says, “My perspective on life shifted, accepting the word ‘widow’ means embracing all the lessons I have learned through losing my husband. It means embracing a new way of living with others and celebrating their lives.” She hopes to share her story with others, believing that they will find comfort in her words, but also seeking for Jordan’s legacy to live on.
