After Vow of Lifetime Love, Husband and Wife Get Just 9 Days Together

delaware coupleNine days.

That’s how long Maurese Miller and Tomya Goffney-Miller had on this earth as husband and wife.

Nine days.

Maurese and Tomya were married April 12. Tomya passed away in the morning on April 21.

Her death is surely painful for her new husband, their young son and the rest of their family.

But it was not unexpected.

Nine hours, nine days, nine weeks. Doctors had said their time would be limited.

Tomya had Stage 4 colon cancer. Their April 12 wedding – the date had been set long before – was held in Tomya’s room at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del.

A stunning bride in a beautiful wedding gown, Tomya was in her bed with Maurese standing at her side when the couple said their vows.

They committed themselves to marriage in front of a small wedding party, their son and Apostle Robert Revelle, who conducted the ceremony.

Others watched the ceremony via Skype. Thousands read and shared the story of their love in the days that followed.

Nine days.

Tomya would have turned 37 this past Thursday. On a fundraiser page set up to help raise money to pay for funeral costs, Maurese wrote:

“This site is to help me and my son Jr. help raise money for funeral cost. Married to Tomya Goffney-Miller on 4-12-14, passed away on 4-21-14. This year she will be in a much better place for her birthday on 4-24-14.”

Maurese may be right.

But for nine days, her last nine days, there were probably many times Tomya Goffney-Miller thought of her husband or her son and felt like she was in a pretty good place.

If you’d like to help Maurese Miller and his son, go to http://www.gofundme.com/8j4nr4.

Source: delawareonline.com

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top