Three months after Josefina Ruiz Montejano saw her final wish granted, the woman who finally married her soulmate thanks to the generosity of friends and strangers, has passed away.
Montejano, formerly Josefina Ruiz, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer.
Her story made headlines late last year after family and friends pleaded for help in granting her last wish as she began to lose her battle to cancer -- to marry her best friend.
An outpouring of support helped make that wish come true.
The former dancer for ballet Folklorico Manquetzalli was diagnosed with colon-rectal cancer last year at the age of 47 and “has been fighting the biggest battle of her life" ever since.
"God bless every single person (who) helped us," Ruiz Montejano said at the time.
She was told by doctors that her cancer spread to her liver and lungs and she had an estimated 3 to 6 months left to live.
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"When he told me I said, 'I don't believe it,'" she said. "I said, 'No, this is not happening to me. No."
Ruiz Montejano said at the time she was waiting for a miracle, but that miracle may have been her best friend and "soulmate" Luis Montejano, who quit his job to take care of her.
"He's a wonderful man," she said. "He's my angel."
Ruiz Montejano proposed to Luis Montejano two months before their wedding, saying "it is the last thing I want to do -- marry him."
"I wish I had more time with her," he said. "I pray that I do, regardless whether it is months of years."
With a date set for Oct. 8, the day the couple met 10 years earlier, in the groom’s sister’s South Chicago backyard, many helped make Ruiz’s final wish come true.
Supporters donated things like food, a wig, centerpieces, décor, minister services, a wedding cake and more. Her sister even made her a wedding dress.
A GoFundMe campaign raised thousands of dollars to help the couple pay for her medical care. Now, a new GoFundMe page is asking for help to pay for her cremation.
"She was always full of life, dancing, singing living life like there was no tomorrow never knowing that one day, cancer would steal her tomorrows away from her and her family," the page reads. "Even through her cancer battle, she never stopped smiling, living, loving and making the best of every moment that she had to share. Leaving memories to live on through her family and friends forever. Josefina was a true angel and now she has spread her wings to fly."
