HER dying wish was to marry, with her middle son walking her down the aisle.
Mother-of-four Maria Stow's dream finally came true exactly a month before she died of bowel cancer.
Instead of an aisle, Mrs Stow walked down the hallway of her family's home in Marton Grove, north Hull.
Not wishing to deprive any of their loved ones of witnessing the special moment, Mrs Stow and her husband Liam welcomed dozens of people inside.
Others watched from outside the family's three-bedroom semi-detached council home.
"We must have had 200 people watch it," says Mr Stow, 35.
"The registrar had told us beforehand to tone it down. The feeling was that there would be too many people there.
"But how could we say no to people? It was packed. We ended up having people on the stairs. People were even peering in through the front windows.
"We wanted all our family and friends to be there with us to share our day and they were."
Mr and Mrs Stow were married by a registrar on July 12 this year.
She died on August 12, with her husband by her side, as her daughter, Leonie, 13, and sons, Connor, 15, Charlie, 17, and Daniel, 24, slept.
Today, memories of the wedding are a source of great comfort for Mr Stow.
"She looked beautiful," he says. "Charlie and my dad, Paul, gave her away.
"Maria had told me she wanted to get married before she died and we made sure it happened."
Mr Stow struggles to find the words to describe the occasion, with grief and a sense of macho pride standing in the way.
"It was the bee's knees," he says.
"It was brilliant. Fantastic. Everyone loved it."
Mr Stow is father to his wife's two youngest children, although he had a role bringing up Charlie and Daniel.
His mind drifts to the day the couple broke the news to their family that she was going to die.
"We held back a while before telling the children," says Mr Stow, who was his wife's full-time carer.
"They were distraught. We all were. Maria told them that she was not going to get any better and that it could happen any time."
Mr Stow praised his wife's resolve.
"The children were really important to her. They meant everything. We pulled together."
Mrs Stow's close friend, Rachel Wood, agrees.
"Maria was so strong throughout," she says. "It was amazing the way she made everyone laugh, even when she was going through chemotherapy.
"It should have been the other way round, but Maria kept us going."
Miss Wood, 29, who is busy putting the finishing touches to a fundraiser in her friend's memory, believes she would have been proud of the way the family has responded to their loss.
"The younger ones are doing brilliantly at Kelvin Hall School and Daniel is doing great in his engineering diploma at Hull College," she said.
"Maria wanted them all to carry on. She would be so proud."
A fight night, featuring local amateur boxers, takes place on Friday at 7.30pm, at O'Rileys bar in Beverley Road, Hull.
Proceeds from the event, which costs £15 a ticket, will be split between cancer charity Macmillan Cancer Support and Mrs Stow's children.
