In 2016, Jim Mills was informed by doctors that his 53-year-old wife Leeanne Mills’s ocular melanoma was no longer treatable — she had, at best, around a year to live. The news was devastating for the couple, who’d been married for 29 years and had five children.
“As anyone who has ever lost a loved one knows, it changes your life,” said Mills. “We had a very special marriage. We were as in love at 30 years of marriage as we were during the first year.”
They quickly were dealing with more than just a medical condition. “Illness, it strips people of their identity,” said Mills. “You’re taken out of your home, out of your clothes, and stuck in a hospital where you’re poked and prodded. Terminal illness is even worse because you realize you’re never getting that life back.”