He's dying of cancer. She survived it. They had their...

Corey Lamonte Cunningham said it first. Sitting in his wheelchair, he looked up at Tyyisha Marie Evans and promised his eternal love.

Then it was Evans’ turn. She knelt before Cunningham, her best friend, and reciprocated his vows, to have and hold him, in joy and sorrow — a promise of love that will last always.

Evans was the first to cry. Then Cunningham. Then nurses and doctors wept freely as the couple officially bound themselves to each other, in this life and the next.

Cunningham, 45, was diagnosed with Stage IV glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in November. It has not responded to treatment. This isn’t the Houston couple’s first time facing a dangerous cancer — Evans, 42, underwent treatment for breast cancer in her late 30s.

While treatments and therapies continue to be tested and developed at the Kenneth R. Peak Brain and Pituitary Treatment Center at Methodist, glioblastoma has a median survival timeline of 15 months.

Phylliss Chappell, a supportive and palliative care physician, said the idea for a hospital wedding was kindled in her first conversation with Cunningham.

“One of the things I always ask in the initial consultation is if you can’t make decisions for yourself, who do you trust to make decisions for you. He said his fiancée, Tyyisha,” Chappell said. “I asked him if he planned to be married. He said yes, so I asked ‘Would you like to be married in the hospital?’”

Cunningham did not want to get married in a hospital bed, surrounded by machines and tubes. But when the doctor suggested the hospital’s chapel, he agreed.

And so did Evans, who had previously declined his four earlier marriage proposals. She said his traveling work schedule over the years made it difficult to feel settled in their lives. But his diagnosis put it all in perspective.

“I couldn’t imagine not marrying my best friend while he’s still here,” she said. “Seeing his face made me more emotional; I felt the love he had for me. I had never felt that more than I felt it today.”

In recent months, the couple has made a concerted effort to make every day count, “by telling each other something we didn’t know about each other the day before,” she said.

Cunningham’s wheelchair was decorated in their chosen wedding colors: White and navy blue. Evans’ dress matched his blue Chuck Taylors. Hospital staff scattered glittery blue and white petals along the aisle, and decorated the pews in blue and white fabric.

“Methodist is awesome. I didn’t think good people like this existed,” said Evans.

At their sides were Evans’s sons Melvin Mock Jr., 11, Mel’Christifor Mock, 10, and their grandson, 4-year-old Aiden Hines.

Charles Jackson officiated, while Narjess Kardan, the hospital’s Muslim chaplain resident, read a traditional wedding passage from the Quran. Cunningham has been studying the Quran for many years, and Kardan wanted to give him a message of hope and love at the ceremony.

In a private moment for the couple, Jackson reminded them to listen to their own hearts.

He began by speaking to Evans. “Your love for him sustains anything and everything,” he said, before turning to Cunningham. “And you love the ground she hovers on,” he said.

“When the time comes and you go on toward glory, you’ll know that you will be with him and he’ll be with you.”

julie.garcia@chron.com

Twitter.com/reporterjulie