Windsor couple ties the knot at home, 10 days before bride dies of cancer

With tears in his eyes and two wedding rings around his fingers, Kenny Renaud recalls the joy he felt whenever the love of his life would smile or laugh.

"Nobody could say anything bad about her. If anybody says anything bad about her, it's because they're jealous," said Renaud.

Renaud is feeling immense heartbreak following the death of his wife. But, despite the grief, he's feeling grateful to have been able to fulfill Kelly Goudreau's last wish — one which bonds them forever.

A date night at the movies 17 years ago led to Renaud and Goudreau becoming inseparable, he said. After one year of dating, Renaud moved in with Goudreau and her two sons.

She also wanted to wear the pants in the relationship and, to be honest, I let her," Renaud said with a laugh. "You can ask her sons. She was always like that."

Throughout the majority of their relationship, Renaud said, the two never felt the needed to get married to solidify their love.

"You always hear these horror stories of people living together for 15 or 20 years. They turned around, tie the knot and then they're getting divorced six months later,” he said.

Everything changed for the family in Nov. 2021. Renaud said that's when Goudreau learned she had a cancerous brain tumour.

Photo taken of a wedding picture from Kelly and Kenny’s Feb. 9 wedding day at their home. Pictured in Windsor, Ont. on Wednesday, Mar. 1, 2023. (Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)

"The next morning, they did the surgery and she was in pain for months. I guess she was hiding it," an emotional Renaud said, adding doctors also found a mass in her lung.

"When they found the tumour, we started going to the cancer clinic. She was in stage four."

As her health started to decline, Goudreau had a change of heart when it came to marrying Renaud, he said, when she asked him six months ago if they could get married.

"She woke up one night and asked me that," he said." I've always been ready. I was just waiting for her."

However, a traditional wedding in a chapel was not possible due to Goudreau's physical condition. That's when Renaud made a phone call to marriage officiant Joe McParland.

"She wanted to leave this Earth, married to the love of her life," said McParland.

Marriage officiant Joe MacParland officiated Kenny and Kelly Goudreau-Renaud’s at home wedding, helping to grant her last wish. Pictured in Windsor, Ont. on Wednesday, Mar. 1, 2023. (Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)

On Feb. 9, the pair was married in the comfort of their home in Windsor's east end. In front of Goudreau's sons and very close friends and family, the couple was joined together as husband and wife.

"It was a small gathering but the room was just filled with love," said McParland. "She was still struggling. We had to help her out of the couch but she insisted to get up and sign the paperwork."

That wedding seems to be the only thing she wanted. That's because Kelly — now donning the double-barreled last name of Goudreau-Renaud — died just 10 days later.

Renaud now wears both his and her wedding rings on his fingers as a way to keep his wife close to him.

"I took it off her because her fingers were swelling up. Cancer is so unforgiving," Renaud said.

"But I'll never take her ring off. I kiss it every morning when I wake up."

As for Renaud's youngest stepson Adam Goudreau, the 21-year-old said the path forward for him will be difficult — but will be centred around making his mother proud.

"She taught me her biggest lesson when she was actually in a coma a few days before she died ... I could tell that, no matter the good or the bad, it's always best to stay positive," said Adam, who is pursuing a military career.

"I'm waiting for my basic training date. I know that's what she wanted and she knows I wanted that. She wants me to succeed and believe in my dreams."

A photo of an angel is now displayed on the window of Renaud's home, in honour of his late wife.

Kelly Goudreau-Renaud was 53 when she died.