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Author: 69BookWorM69

Aug 29th 2013 at 6:31:46 AM

How about this for a description:

Marriage is a big decision, and one that normally shouldn't be entered into lightly, because it will affect you for the rest of your life. However, long term planning goes out the window when YourDaysAreNumbered. When you're terminally ill or headed off into a battle where your odds of survival are slim, it's now or never. Thus, a person facing The Long Dark asks (or even demands) to marry as soon as possible, and those close to that person accommodate their wishes.

Often, there is some prior relationship between the dying person and his/her intended; they may even be already engaged, so the marriage would've happened anyway. A relatively new or recent attraction can be hurried along towards this by the impending threat of death. In still other cases, the people in question may have never even considered marrying each other under any other circumstances. Perhaps they're just two terminally ill patients who don't want to die alone, or an otherwise platonic friend volunteers to marry a dying patient because he/she is not long for this world.

Very much TruthInTelevision. Subtrope of AltarTheSpeed. For war-specific instances of this, see WartimeWedding.