They say a picture speaks a thousand words, and in some circumstances, that saying couldn’t be more true. When Emma Cotillard noticed something in her wedding pictures that she wished she had seen sooner.
Emma, 33, was eager for a romantic vacation after she married Justin Cotillard, the love of her life. She was unaware, however, that the vacation would quickly become a nightmare.
One morning, Justin began yelling at Emma to get out of the room. Emma, who was seven months pregnant, was particularly sensitive and had a strong reaction to her husband’s unexpected actions. It only got worse.
“He didn’t remember that I was seven months pregnant with our first baby. He thought I was a stranger,” she explained.
The symptoms were considerably more concerning for Justin because he was only 29 years old. The pair was forced to terminate their remaining travel plans and head back to England, where a startling telegram was waiting for them.
Justin’s doctors estimated that he only had two years to live due to an aggressive brain tumor.
Emma gave birth to the couple’s first child, Mia, on the same day that Justin began his cancer treatment, preventing him from being present for the birth of his daughter.
The cancer quickly spread in Justin despite the medication. Emma recalls the gruesome diagnoses made by Justin’s doctors.
“They gave me two weeks to take my husband home before he died,” she says.
Justin passed away in May 2016. The couple’s daughter would now have to experience childhood without her father. Nobody had detected a brain tumor because everything happened so quickly. But thereafter, Emma gave it some thought.
“Looking at the wedding photos now, you can see that the right side of his face is droopy,” says Emma.
Emma has shared her story with the media because she wants to encourage others to seek medical attention when the slightest symptom appears. Lives can be prolonged or saved when a tumor is detected early. Please share this article to help spread Emma’s message.