Sapulpa Couple Put Wedding On Fast Track After Difficult Diagnosis

"In sickness and in health" is a vow most couples make when they get married, but a massive brain tumor showed a Green Country couple what the phrase really means, before they even got to walk down the aisle.

"We actually rode the school bus together, in grade school," said Annalisa Neal, form Sapulpa.

Annalisa and Darren Neal look like any happy newlywed couple, but they've already been through more than most couples have two months into their marriage.

A couple months ago, the news that a tumor is taking over part of 36-year-old Annalisa's brain caused them to put their wedding plans on fast forward.

"I have cysts that are bursting inside of it and bleeding, and when that happens, there's a lot of pain, and in the event that the tumor itself has some kind of leakage, it would hit the optic nerve," Annalisa said.

She said she got the news in January, when she and Darren were just engaged and hoping for an April wedding. But life had other plans.

"They said it's a very common tumor to have, in that, if you're going to have one, it's probably one of the better ones to have, because 99 percent of the time they are non-cancerous. But even though it's common medically-speaking, it's not common to us," Annalisa said.

"I just heard it in her voice. And she was crying and - I don't know - there was just nothing else to do. It was right. It felt right. She needed more than just an engagement ring," Darren said.

"He basically said, ‘I've really been thinking about it and I don't want you to go into that surgery not being my wife. I want to be able to take care of you, I want to be able to make decisions for you,'" Annalisa said.

So she said yes for a second time, they picked a new wedding date and, with the help of family and friends pitching in on the small details and a potluck dinner, they made it happen in just 10 days.

"The story isn't necessarily about the tumor, it's about what we've been shown with the compassion and the grace and the caring and the love, all of that, from the people around us. It truly has been amazing," Annalisa said.

"This has nothing to do with in health and sick and death do us part, this is, ‘I just love you,'" Darren said.

PenWeddings posted the wedding video to Facebook two weeks ago and already it's been shared hundreds, if not thousands of times.

"We have people, literally all over the world, praying for us," Annalisa said.

They're praying for strength they're certain will stand the test of time, and just enough laughter to shield their fear.

"I have to laugh about it. I have to, because it truly does heal my heart and make me less scared," Annalisa said. "I'm going to come out on the other side fine. I might look like I fought Mike Tyson, but I'm going to be fine."

Annalisa has surgery to remove the tumor Wednesday morning. She said her doctors say it's a common, non-cancerous tumor and they don't expect any problems.