Take it from these people – ‘Till death do us part’, holds no good anymore! A man recently married his deceased girlfriend in what’s a first-of-its-kind ceremony that combined a funeral and wedding!

For Chadil Deffy, it was love no bounds as he placed a ring on the finger of Sarinya Kamsook, his girlfriend of 10 years, who he had planned to marry, earlier but who died in an accident before the couple could set a date! Another striking incident is of a reality show contestant Chris Medina, who proposed to his disabled fiancee, Juliana Ramos who was snatched away from the jaws of death. What’s behind this, you ask…

‘In sickness and health’
Should a downturn of any kind affect your relationship? “No, not at all,” says santoor player Rahul Sharma. “It just does not matter if the person you love falls ill or is handicapped, after all finding your soul mate is tough. The guy (Chadil) is so committed; it must have taken some feeling to do what he did!”

Another famous case in point is of Hollywood stars Farrah Fawcett (suffered from cancer) and Ryan O’Neal who were never married before she passed away. O’Neal repeatedly asked Fawcett to marry him but only shortly before her death was she supposed to have agreed. – after nearly 30 years and one child together – to be his bride.

Theatre director Divya Palat too, fell tragically ill before she and (now hubby) Aditya Hitkari decided to tie the knot. “I was diagnosed with a single attack of multiple sclerosis,” recalls Divya. “My left side was paralysed, I was told that I wouldn’t walk again and it was such a difficult time. I didn’t know if Aditya and I were going to be together but he came to the hospital with a ring and proposed to me the very next day. Any lesser man would have taken the opportunity to leave but he didn’t. It was touching. I think that sickness should never matter – that’s the whole point of love.”

So, what gives?
But guess what, it’s not just love that rules here. “I’d call it as sense of guilt that might emanate from not fulfilling the person’s wishes,” declares clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Seema Hingorrany. “Knowing that someone you love is terminally ill, is very traumatic. Also, after the loss of a loved one, a person can find it hard to move on, so such a marriage to someone who may not make it, actually gives some kind of closure to the situation. I had the case of a guy who married the girl he loved when she was at the last stage of cancer. She died shortly after their marriage. I asked him how he could go through with it and how tough it might have been mentally. He said he couldn’t bear the thought of her passing through life not knowing what their marriage would be like. He also said he was at peace now that her soul was at peace…I still get teary eyed when I think of it,” she recalls.

Legal-speak:
Do bedside marriages hold good in the Indian scenario? Lawyer Mrunalini Deshmukh opines that while a marriage between two people – even if one partner is sick or dying may be treated the same as any other people in a legal relationship – a union between a living being and a corpse (who may be regarded as an object), holds no good in the Indian context. “Where is the legality?” she asks. “I find it quite insane, actually. But in the other case we have seen quite a few marriages that take place on account of love, the need for security and various other reasons.”

It may seem like Shakespearean tragedy but the scenario has real people and emotions and is quite touching, any way you see it.