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A woman has fulfilled her late husband's wish to start a family.
Mariah Smith, 26, from Haverhill, Massachusetts, and her husband, Chris Smith, hoped to one day raise children together.
Sadly, Chris passed away in February 2021 at the age of 27 after being diagnosed with sinus cancer, which spread to his brain and spinal cord.
Before he died, Chris opted to freeze his sperm so that Mariah would be able to live their dream of having children together.
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Two years after his death, his wife has announced she is expecting a baby girl after deciding to conceive via IVF.
Mariah explained that Chris 'refused to start treatment until he had banked sperm' just in case 'chemotherapy left him infertile'.
"Before he passed, I promised him I'd chase our dream of having kids. This spring, just over two years after Chris' death, our daughter will be born," she wrote for Insider.
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"We wanted to know we could have the family we dreamed of. It was a must for us to share a family," she added.
"Becoming a widow at 24 was just as awful as it sounds.
"But I had something to hang on to: the promise of having Chris' child.
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"It kept me going, taking care of myself and working toward the future.
"It breathed life into my heart and soul.
"I knew I still had that piece of him. I had the option to have our own family, even though it'd look very different than I'd anticipated.
"I could keep him alive in this way for our family and friends."
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Mariah believes that the birth of her newborn 'will be a moment of immense joy and sadness'.
"Knowing that Chris won't be there to hold her and meet her with me will bring a new kind of grief," she wrote.
"Chris and I had plenty of conversations about how we would parent, and I feel prepared to do what he would have wanted.
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"I've been through a lot and still have a great challenge ahead: doing my absolute best to make sure my children know Chris, without ever being able to know him."
She added: "In Chris' last moments, I talked to him about our future children.
"I said I would still have those babies and tell them everything about him.
"They would know how special he was and how hard he fought to be here.
"They would learn to recognise pictures of Daddy and would know how excited he was at the thought of them."
Topics: Parenting, Health, Sex and Relationships
Anish Vij