Man whose nuptials were altered by cancer dies at 26
Solomon Chau had 128 loving days with wife Jenn, after crowdfunding created their ‘dream wedding’
His doctors said he would die, but Solomon Chau kept living. He’d make them laugh with happy antics, and they’d call him “superhuman.”
Some days the cancer sapped his energy, and when his wife got worried, Chau would say life is great, and tomorrow will be better.
But Chau was dying; he and Jenn Carter had to adapt to that hard fact.
They were married on April 11, mere days after Chau was told he wouldn’t live long enough to hold the service in late summer, as they had wanted. Their friends rallied and appealed to the Internet, where hundreds donated more than $50,000 to throw a hastily arranged wedding at Casa Loma and give the couple a head start on their cherished, eroding time together as husband and wife. They would have 128 days. Chau died Monday afternoon at the downtown condo he shared with Carter, eight months after he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He was 26.
“Every girl dreams of growing up to marry a Solomon Chau,” said Carter on her first day without him, as heartfelt tributes scattered across social media.
“It feels great to see that everyone loved him just as much as I did.”
Chau was born Oct. 27, 1988, and grew up the youngest of four siblings in St. Catharines, Ont. His longtime friend Jordan Nunn remembers seeing Chau’s radiating grin when he wandered into their business class on the first day of Grade 9. They played football together for four years, with Chau suiting up as an outside linebacker who blocked a kick, thus clinching a championship.
“I can still see it,” Nunn said. “He never bragged or anything, he just came running off the field with a big smile . . . He was just such a lovable, goofy guy.”
A few years later, there was a house party in St. Catharines to celebrate Chau’s 19th birthday. Carter was there, visiting a friend who went to Brock University, and wasn’t sure what to think of the birthday boy, who was stuck in a swarm of other girls. But Chau sure was interested in her.
“He was just infatuated, man. It was really funny,” Nunn recalled.
A flurry of phone calls continued over the ensuing weeks between St. Catharines and Pickering, where Carter lived. Then, in the midst of a huge snowstorm that December, Chau took a bus around the Golden Horseshoe and plunked himself on Carter’s doorstep. They were together ever since.
Chau moved to Toronto to be closer to Carter, and went to George Brown College to become a chef. Carter’s older brother, Mike, said he first met Chau when he came to stay at their family home six years ago. “He made me breakfast the next day,” said Mike, now 29. “Normally that would be awkward, but he made me the best breakfast burrito I’ve had in my life.”
Carter said they knew for a long time that they’d get married, but she was still blown away, in spring last year, when Chau took her down to the plaza beneath the CN Tower. He got down on one knee as loved ones popped up in a flash mob dance, with dolphin balloons serving as a floating tribute to her sister, who died when she was younger.
That winter, Chau was diagnosed with liver cancer and was rushed into surgery the next day. Three months later, in late March, Chau learned the cancer had spread and that he wouldn’t live much longer. He married Carter within weeks, arriving at Casa Loma buoyed by the generosity of their donors and friends, who had quickly arranged “the wedding of a lifetime.”
“The way that his cancer was, he was in a lot of pain in his shoulders,” said Nunn, “but I’m telling you he was standing tall when he married Jenn.”
Weeks passed and Chau’s strength rose and fell away. He went to Niagara Falls and Blue Mountain with Carter. They had parties and bought a dog.
Mike Carter spoke with Chau about death, about what comes next.
“We came up with this thing, that maybe it’s a vacation . . . He said, yeah, I’ll be there. I’ll wait for you guys.”
Last Friday, Chau told his wife to cherish her life; he was worried his death would bring her down. He died in his sleep three days later, and Carter was with him.
A visitation will be held Thursday and Friday at the Jerritt Funeral Chapel in North York. Chau’s funeral will be there, too, on Saturday, Aug. 22. It’s the same day he and Carter dreamed they would marry, before everything changed.
The family has asked that any donations be made to the Tim Hortons Children’s Foundation or Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care.