Chicago couple hold hospital wedding 24 hours before critical surgery

Just three weeks before Annesley Clark and Christine Corso were set to get married, the Chicago couple found themselves sharing their "I dos" early in a hospital waiting room.

Clark and Corso had spent the last year planning their Nov. 2 wedding since getting engaged in October 2023.

But in October of this year, Clark was diagnosed with a life-threatening blood infection, and a mass was discovered growing on their heart. The couple decided to hold a last-minute wedding ceremony Oct. 9 before Clark was scheduled to undergo a risky surgery.

It wasn't the wedding they had initially planned, but it gave Clark and Corso a sense of comfort during one of their most uncertain and difficult times as a couple, Clark told the Sun-Times.

"Christine and I tell each other every day we love each other and how important we are to one another, but there was a chance we weren't going to get to say that anymore," Clark said. "This gave me the opportunity to express those feelings in the biggest way that I could and give Christine something to look back on, especially if I didn't make it."

Clark, 33, has a rare condition called Magic Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that caused a fungal bloodstream infection and mass in their heart that required immediate surgery, Clark said.

But Clark's chances of surviving the surgery weren't high, which is why Clark and Corso decided to go forward with their wedding the day before Clark was due for the operation, they said.

With 24 hours to plan, Clark and Corso's loved ones and a team of nurses at Northwestern Medicine scrambled to give the couple a memorable wedding during an uncertain time.

"It was like everyone immediately sprung into action to make this work," Corso said.

Clark's sister ran out to get flowers, a bakery near the hospital made them a wedding cake, Clark employer brought in the couple's wedding suits and nurses at the hospital decorated the waiting room with balloons and printed out letters spelling, "Just married," Corso said.

A friend who flew in from Seattle for the ceremony played the fiddle, and two other close friends officiated, Corso said.

"The hospital capped it at 20 guests — and they said even that was pushing it," Corso said. "But it was really beautiful for us to be surrounded by loved ones and have something else to focus on the day before surgery."

For Clark, the ceremony gave them a sense of comfort knowing they were going into the surgery having been able to say their vows and "say in no uncertain terms to Christine that they are the world and the sun to me, and that I'm grateful for every second we've had together."

The morning of Clark's surgery, the overnight nurses who weren't able to attend the wedding lined up outside their hospital room and cheered Clark on as they were wheeled into surgery. Doctors successfully removed the mass, they said.

Clark spent the next two weeks recovering in the intensive-care unit before returning home Nov. 4, they said.

Since then, they've been recovering at home in Avondale surrounded by Corso, their sister and their dogs, they said.

"My recovery has had its ups and downs, but I've gotten to be home now, which makes all the difference in terms of morale," Clark said. "Every day I get a little bit better, and every day I feel grateful to be at home with Christine."

To support Clark's recovery, the couple has launched a GoFundMe campaign raising money to offset the costs of their care and ongoing medical needs.

Clark has said the outpouring of support they've received from their community has helped them get through the most challenging parts of their recovery.

Clark also said they were "enormously grateful" for the staff at Northwestern for making sure they've felt welcome and recognized throughout their stays at the hospital.

"Being chronically ill and disabled in the hospital can feel very isolating, like you're alone in a room or just a number," Clark said. "But I have felt so authentically and genuinely connected to the nurses and doctors there, and these connections with them have made my days at the hospital feel less bleak."