Woman Had the Wedding of Her Dreams. Then Her Husband Died from a Rare Disease He Contracted While Swimming on Honeymoon

Elizabeth Diamond’s newlywed joy soon turned to tragedy when her husband, Chris, became ill during their honeymoon and died just weeks later.

The Texas woman, 51, recalled to The Sun how the couple celebrated a “beautiful” wedding in November 2017 and pledged to love each other “in sickness and health, till death do us part” — not knowing that the vow would soon become a painful reality.

They set off for a weeklong honeymoon in Jamaica, enjoying horseback riding excursions and walks on the beach together. “It was so romantic, and I couldn’t believe how happy I felt,” Elizabeth told the outlet of the trip. “Finally, I’d found the man of my dreams, and I was never going to let him go.”

On the final day of the honeymoon, the newlyweds visited a waterfall. Elizabeth remembered thinking the water didn’t look as she had expected.

“I’d seen photos of the turquoise water, but when we arrived, it was all murky and brown — not at all like the paradise I’d been expecting,” she told The Sun. “I was disappointed but determined to make the most of every minute of our honeymoon.”

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Despite the murkiness of the water, Chris jumped in to swim. The next day, he came down with what the couple assumed was a stomach bug.

“At first, the nausea and diarrhea didn’t worry me too much, but he couldn’t shake it off,” she said. “When he texted me at work a week later, still ill, to say he was going home early, I was immediately concerned. This was a man who never missed work.”

While Chris was “sure it would pass,” his illness worsened. Two weeks after their return from Jamaica, the 45-year-old woke up with yellow skin and eyes. “I told him, ‘We need to get you to the hospital right away,’ ” Elizabeth recalled.

Doctors quickly determined that Chris had jaundice and that his kidneys and liver had shut down.

“What made this news even scarier was the fact that they had no idea why,” she said.

Thinking that his illness could be connected to their trip to the Caribbean, she went online, searching for any health reports from Jamaica. She found numerous warnings about leptospirosis, a disease caused by the bacterium Leptospira, which can be found in water or soil contaminated by animal urine, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Without treatment, leptospirosis in people can lead to kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, trouble breathing and even death, the CDC states.

Chris had Weil’s disease, an acute, severe form of leptospirosis.

“There were reports of [leptospirosis] all across Jamaica,” Elizabeth told The Sun. “In a flash, I thought of the waterfall, how Chris had jumped right into that brown, murky pool. My breath caught in my throat.”

While Chris was treated with doxycycline at the hospital, his condition gradually deteriorated. “At first, still able to speak, he’d grip my hand and say, ‘I’m not ready to die,’ ” Elizabeth recalled. “But the next day, he was put on a ventilator to help him breathe, only able to use alphabet cards to communicate with me.”

Chris was then placed in a medically induced coma, as Elizabeth remained by his bedside and decorated the walls of his hospital room with photos of their wedding and family.

Eventually, the doctors told Elizabeth that Chris “was brain-dead and there was nothing more they could do for him.”

“It was like being trapped in a waking nightmare,” Elizabeth said of the tragedy. “Just weeks before, we’d been newlyweds. How could this be happening?”

The next morning, 50 days after their wedding, Elizabeth said goodbye to Chris. “I climbed into the bed, curled up into Chris’ arms and whispered, ‘I love you’. Then his life support was turned off, and he was gone.”

“I’d met my soulmate, and he was gone,” she added.

Not long after, she opened up her mail and saw both her marriage certificate and Chris’ death certificate and “collapsed in uncontrollable sobs.”

Elizabeth navigated her grief with the help of her family and friends. While she never imagined finding love again, she created an online dating profile “as a joke” to “tease” her son in October 2022.

She received quite a few responses to her profile, including one from a man named Kim. They connected over texts and phone calls before meeting in person for their first date. The pair got married in June 2024, and Elizabeth said she knew in her heart that “Chris was there in spirit, wanting me to be happy and loved again.”

She said she’s sharing her story in hopes of helping others who have faced similar tragedies.

“I want people to know that in grief you can find a strength you never imagined, and that joy and love are always possible,” she told The Sun.