Couple Marry in 4-Year-Old Son's Hospital Room

Sarah and William Cramer had Xmas wedding where son is being treated for cancer
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 26, 2014 4:58 PM CST
Couple Marry in 4-Year-Old Son's Hospital Room
In this photo taken Dec. 25, 2014, William and Sarah Cramer of Mogadore, Ohio, sit with their children (from left) Billy, 4, Delaney, 1, and Mason, 2, after their wedding at Akron Children's Hospital.   (AP Photo/Akron Beacon Journal, Phil Masturzo)

Sarah Lewis and William Cramer have been together for six years and have three children. The Ohio couple had had plans over the years to get married that never came to fruition—until yesterday, when they had a Christmas wedding in the hospital room where their 4-year-old son, Billy, is being treated for neuroblastoma, typically a children's cancer, the AP reports. A lighted arch was erected and rose petals were scattered in Billy's room at Akron Children's Hospital by employees, who've become like family to the Cramers since Billy was diagnosed in 2013, the Akron Beacon Journal reports. Billy's younger siblings, 2-year-old Mason and 1-year-old Delaney, jingled bells as Sarah's uncle, a pastor, officiated. "I think the hospital has become our second home," Sarah tells Fox 8 Cleveland. "Everyone here treats us like family and treats him like family, and that’s really important to us."

By all accounts, it hasn't been an easy year for the Cramers: Billy has endured intense chemo, surgery, a bone marrow transplant, and now, a clinical immunotherapy trial, the Journal notes. William, who works for a toy company, has stayed home with the two younger kids while Sarah has taken a hiatus from nursing school to stay by Billy's side—she estimates the two of them have been in the hospital for at least six months out of the past 12. But even though the cancer had spread to Billy's bones, his oncologist says the boy is "doing great" and that "from what we can tell, there is no [longer] evidence of the disease," according to the Journal. "My son is my hero," William tells Fox 8, while Sarah notes in the Journal that the in-room ceremony "shows we're going to be together for the long haul." (An experimental leukemia treatment has had a tremendous success rate so far.)

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