A woman whose husband passed away 48 days after their wedding due to cystic fibrosis recently shared the gift she received from him after his passing.
Darren Easton, 24, passed away from complications related to the genetic lung disease on the morning of January 24, 2019. His wife Lauren was inconsolable. She had no idea though, that prior to his passing, Darren had asked a mutual friend to give his wife a special teddy bear which had a recording of his voice telling her that he loved her.
Lauren and Darren were childhood sweethearts, first meeting at 16 when both were patients suffering from cystic fibrosis at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, west London. They started off as long time friends until they fell in love, becoming a couple on New Year’s Eve 2015 while watching the fireworks from the hospital window. Three months later they became engaged after Darren’s condition worsened, leaving him with no choice but to have a lung transplant. On November 27, 2018 Darren was given the worse news possible: he had only weeks to live.
The couple couldn’t afford a wedding, but after launching a GoFundMe campaign they were married thanks to the overwhelming generosity of strangers.
Darren passed away not long after, but he managed to have enough time to organize the special gift that Lauren will cherish forever. Commenting on it in a recent interview, Lauren stated, “Just after Darren died a friend of ours, Sarah Cherryman, came over and gave me a huge teddy bear. I was still very upset and didn’t really understand, but she said, ‘Give it a squeeze,’ and when I did it was Darren’s voice saying, ‘Hi baby, just saying I love you and I miss you. You’ll be my world forever and always.’ It was so thoughtful of him to have done that for me, because I was worried about forgetting the sound of his voice and now I never will. The teddy sits in Darren’s place on the sofa at home and I squeeze him whenever I want to hear him again.”
She added, “Sometimes, on a good day, I’d think to myself that he could go on and on and last forever. But even during the worst times he was always positive and always joking, never giving in to the sadness of it all … I wasn’t surprised at all.If there’s one thing I know about Darren it’s that he’s stubborn. He wasn’t just going to slip away when they told him to. He spent his whole life fighting this illness and would fight it right until the end.”
Darren’s funeral arrangements have been planned for February 12 at St Mary’s Church in Harefield. Lauren, still grieving, is busy making sure the ceremony is perfect.
If you would like to donate something towards helping other sufferers of CF please check out Lauren’s page: https://www.gofundme.com/please-help-darren-to-fulfill-his-last-wish
