They say there’s no love like young love, and they’re right. There’s something about being madly in love when you are a teenager that’s unique from being in love at any other time in a person’s life. For teenagers, life feels so urgent, everything happening at the moment is intensified by an exponential factor as many teens leap from one emotional extreme to another, and that’s just when it comes to everyday things.
But, once you add love to the mix, you’ve got a compound best observed from a safe distance. All kidding aside, there have been a lot of people who’ve actually married their high school sweetheart and remained with them for the rest of their lives.
However, in the case of a young man named Chase, a lifetime with the woman he loves isn’t as long as it should be. You see, Chase was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma back in 2014 when he was only 12 years old. The teen managed to win several bouts against the disease in 2016 and 2019. However, in March, the 18-year-old high school senior received devastating news. The tumors were back, and they were now growing inside his hip, back, and lung. Then by April, he learned that it had reached the lining of his brain.
Friends and family set up a GoFundMe campaign to assist in the many costs associated with Chase’s treatment. So far, they’ve managed to raise almost $100,000.
"If you’ve had the privilege of watching Chase swim, you have seen the drive and competitiveness that burns in his soul,” the page reads.
"If you’ve had the privilege of knowing Chase in person, you have seen the kindness and goodness, the loyalty and righteousness that exudes from his spirit. His faith is strong, his fight is strong and he has the support and love of a small community with a BIG heart!”
By April, doctors gave the young man roughly three months to live. With this somber prognosis in mind, Chase had something incredibly important he felt he needed to do. The teen and his girlfriend, Sadie Mills (also 18), had made a lot of big plans for their post-college future, which included getting married. However, with news of Chase’s medical condition, they had to speed up their timeline considerably. So family and friends help the two lovebirds arrange a special wedding ceremony within just four days. The ceremony took place in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Both Chase and Sadie’s parents were totally on board with the idea; in fact, his father was the one who introduced the idea.
"He said, ‘I can tell in your demeanor that you’re going to marry Sadie one day,’” Chase told USA Today, recounting his father’s words. "‘I want you to know if that’s going through your mind right now, your mom and I support you 110 percent.”
Both families came together to talk about the wedding. And although Chase and Sadie were still in high school and had only dated each other for six months, it did not diminish the fact that their love was very real, and the families knew this.
"I told them how much Sadie had changed my life and how much I loved her, how special she had been to me, the simple fact that there is nobody I’ve been able to open up about my personal life and cancer journey like I’m able to with her,” Chase explained. "She is able to calm me down in a lot of scenarios when nobody else can.”
"He was so sweet,” Sadie said of Chase. "He’s very polite. He’s a good Christian boy. We just fell in love with each other’s personalities. Now, he is all that matters to me.”
Their wedding was a very intimate, simple, and lovely ceremony consisting of the couple’s closest friends and family. The two held hands at the end driveway at Sadie’s parents’ house, where they had shared their first kiss just months before.
"This is like a Hallmark love story,” Chase’s mom, Kelli Smith, said. "A Nicholas Sparks love story. You just don’t see love like this.”
"To all of our friends and family that we couldn’t have at the wedding given the trying times we are living in, attached is the YouTube link to the video from Chase and Sadie’s wedding,” Jeff Mills, Sadie’s father, posted on May 9. "The videographer did an absolutely amazing job of catching every aspect of this special day.”
"It’s 15 minutes long, but definitely worth watching all the way to the end when they walk away to be escorted from the reception. We are so happy and blessed to have Chase and the entire Smith family in our lives. God is Great!”
Faith certainly plays a large role in the lives of many families, and it’s no different for these two young lovers.
"We, every day, pray for a miracle together because we trust in God,” Sadie said. "We pray that Chase would stay on this earth longer so we can bring more people our story of love.”
"The precious people in your life, the amount of time they are in your life, take every moment you have,” Chase said. "Enjoy and give everything you can in those relationships. And know there is so much possible with love when your love includes God.”
Chase and Sadies’ story is just a reminder to all of us that we never know how much time we’ll have to treasure and value those most important in our lives, so we should not waste a single minute. You can watch the heartwarming video of their wedding.
