A Nebraska community is rallying around a bride whose groom died unexpectedly less than an hour after the couple exchanged their wedding vows earlier this week.
Toraze Davis and Johnnie Mae Dennis wed on Monday in Omaha. Shortly after saying “I do” to Dennis and stepping outside the church to take pictures with her, the 48-year-old Davis suddenly fell to the ground, according to what a friend of his told the local television station KETV.
He was later pronounced dead at a hospital and was determined to have suffered a blood clot, KETV reported.
Davis’s death marred a day that was supposed to be special for other reasons as well, according to his loved ones. Monday was his grandmother’s birthday, and it was also Juneteenth, the relatively new federal holiday which celebrates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the US learned they were free.
Monica Miller, Dennis’s colleague at a healthcare service, told KETV that the couple’s happiness was palpable.
“I could just see the smile on his face and how happy he was,” Miller said of Davis. “Just his energy – I just knew that … it was a great day for him.”
Another of Dennis’s friends, Jewel Roberson, said the groom’s heart stopped “just an hour after the ceremony had begun”. She added that the blood clot which took Davis’s life “was not survivable”.
“Within a second – it happened with a second,” Roberson said to KETV, adding that she couldn’t comprehend how Dennis had “been widowed and married” in a span of mere minutes.
Friends and loved ones of Dennis have since been trying to cocoon the newlywed widow with compassion and love. As of Saturday morning, a GoFundMe campaign in her benefit had raised nearly $14,000 for her and the couple’s children. And plans were being made for meals to be provided at Dennis’s household for the coming weeks.
Dennis’s supporters said they also hoped her pain served as a public reminder for people to monitor their health closely and seek out care if something feels wrong with their bodies.
“Every second – minute – you take it seriously,” Dennis’s friend Tonja Ross told KETV. “You try to keep your health together so you can have more happy times and your life won’t get cut short like this.
“Not all medical emergencies are preventable. However, some may be.”
Though there are key differences between the two cases, Davis’s death in some respects called to mind the 28 April car crash that killed South Carolina bride Samantha Miller.
Miller, 34, was leaving her wedding reception when police say a speeding, intoxicated motorist struck the golf cart that the bride was on with her groom, Aric Hutchinson.
Miller died in her wedding dress. Hutchinson was hospitalized with critical injuries but survived. And the motorist was charged with vehicular homicide as well as causing death while driving under the influence, investigators have said.
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