The Breast Cancer Patient Died After 18 hours of Marriage

Many couples go into their wedding day dreaming of a lifetime of love. But Heather and David Mosher of East Windsor, Connecticut, knew that what should have been a new beginning for them, was going to be the end.

Heather, 31, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, and David, 35, wed at Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut, on Dec. 22. Heather died just 18 hours later. Her last words were the vows she recited to her husband.

“It was the hardest day of my life. Especially the 45 minutes or so of the service itself,” David tells PEOPLE. “As we were approaching the ceremony, it just had this feeling like it was more of a funeral than it was a wedding because I knew my time with her was coming to an end.”

“I just bawled through the whole ceremony and, for me, it was such a sad occasion, because I knew I wouldn’t see her again,” he adds. “When someone’s your soulmate, you’re never the same when you lose that part of yourself. There’s a part of me that died when she died.”