“I love this woman more than life itself,” Glenn Marsh tells PEOPLE of wife Alecia Wendland
Courtesy of Glenn Marsh and Alecia Wendland
NEED TO KNOW
- Alecia Wendland, who has stage 4 cancer, was initially told she had just 6 months to live after being diagnosed
- When she was still alive a year later, she decided to try online dating, meeting Glenn Marsh, the man who would become her husband
- Although on their first date she did offer to set him up with somebody else, Marsh wasn’t interested — and the pair tell PEOPLE they ended up getting married about 9 months later
The first thing Alecia Wendland told Glenn Marsh when they met for coffee last February was, "I have cancer."
She went on to tell him that she was in treatment and a single mom of five kids — and that her 37-year-old son Richie lived with her part-time and has Cushing's syndrome, a condition that occurs when there's too much cortisol inside the body, according to the Mayo Clinic. Over the years, the condition has caused him to have seizures, high blood pressure and osteoporosis, and treatment has included numerous medications and brain surgery.
In putting all her cards on the table during their first date, the Daytona Beach woman knew there was a chance he wouldn't be interested in a romantic relationship. In fact, she even offered to introduce him to her single girlfriends.
But Marsh wasn't interested in that — he liked her.
"I had an instant connection," Marsh, 59, tells PEOPLE.
Courtesy of Glenn Marsh and Alecia Wendland
The only downside to their date? They had a time limit because Marsh, who works for a European recycling machine manufacturer, had a flight to catch for a work trip.
“I didn't want to leave, but I had to,” he says.
In the parking lot, he went to shake her hand, but she said, “I’m a hugger."
“It just felt right,” says Wendland, a 58-year-old registered nurse.
And it was — the couple quickly became an item and about nine months later, they tied the knot.
Courtesy of Glenn Marsh and Alecia Wendland
Wendland's life took a serious turn in July 2023 when she went to urgent care because she noticed she was jaundiced. A scan showed a mass on her gallbladder duct and she was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer.
“It was devastating news,” she says. “The doctor said I would only live six months.”
As if that wasn't painful enough, it wasn't long before her relationship with her boyfriend of 24 years ended.
Friends rallied around the single mom, but Wendland couldn't think about the future that much. She didn’t want to buy a house, so she moved out of the villa she shared with her ex and into a cottage friends bought and rented to her.
When a year passed and she was still alive, Wendland decided it was time to try online dating.
She saw Glenn’s profile, and messaged him about meeting for coffee.
After that first date, Marsh texted Wendland from the plane, saying he wanted to see her as soon as he got home — but that didn't stop him from calling her from his hotel room on Feb. 13 to ask if she'd be his valentine.
Courtesy of Glenn Marsh and Alecia Wendland
She said yes, of course — and while they were talking on the phone, Marsh overheard her son Richie in the background, talking about how he was upset that the latest issue of Rolling Stone hadn’t arrived in the mail yet.
When Marsh arrived at Wendland's home on Valentine’s Day, he had a copy of the magazine for her son and a bouquet of flowers for her.
They fell quickly, madly in love.
“She is one of the strongest women I've ever met,” he says. “I would do anything for her. She is truly my angel."
Alecia says she feels the same way about him.
“He's so protective, and he's so caring, and he's so giving,” she says. “He tells me all the time we're going to fight this, even though I can't have surgery and it's stage 4…If I need to be in the hospital, he takes me in a minute. He doesn't ever hesitate."
Her cancer, they say, adds an “urgency” to their love story.
"We don't waste time," Wendland says, as her husband adds, "We're doing everything that we can while we can, because we both know that we're on a timetable."
For instance, although the pair initially planned to wait six months until moving in together, they couldn't wait, making the plunge after only four months.
He proposed on her birthday, September 8 — and just over two months later, they tied the knot on Nov. 23, surrounded by about 170 of their closest loved ones.
“It was a magnificent day,” Wendland says.
Courtesy of Glenn Marsh and Alecia Wendland
These days, Wendland is undergoing chemotherapy every two weeks and recently finished radiation treatment.
“A tumor shrunk, but then about 20 more tumors grew in my liver,” she says. “We're hoping that these are going to shrink with this new chemo.”
Doctors say they cannot operate, because the cancer is already in her lymph nodes.
As the family continues to navigate ongoing medical needs for Wendland and her son Richie, loved ones set up a GoFundMe to help support them.
Courtesy of Glenn Marsh and Alecia Wendland
When it comes to the future, Wendland no longer asks the doctors how long she has left to live — instead, she's just focused on making room for all the joy that's found her.
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“I love this woman more than life itself,” Marsh says. “I just wish that I could have met her 20 years earlier.”
Wendland adds, “But we're cramming 20 years into this, that's for sure.”
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