From his hospital bed, he weds wife. Hours later, he falls into coma and dies eight days later.
They had planned to get married on Oct 13 - her birthday - this year.
And they would go to the Registry of Marriages at Fort Canning.
But it all went wrong when Mr Joseph Koh, 45, was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in March.
The auxillary police officer kept it from his fiancee initially as he didn't want her to worry. But eventually, a month later, he came clean.
"Until the day he died, I could not believe it. He was so fit and healthy. We battled it together," says Mrs Edma Koh, 44.
A check-up in September last year found that Mr Koh's blood pressure was dangerously low, and he was hospitalised immediately.
Mrs Koh had rushed back from her hometown in the Philippines to be with him.
"At the hospital, he told me, 'I'm really happy to see you.' We cried. I had to be mentally prepared," she says.
With his condition deteriorating rapidly, he begged doctors to keep him alive until his wedding day.
Knowing he did not have much time left, family and friends arranged for the wedding ceremony to be brought to him.
More than 30 people crowded the room to attend the solemnisation, which lasted an hour.
Finally, on Oct 14, he exchanged wedding rings and vows of eternal happiness with his new wife from his bed in Singapore General Hospital.
It was a simple ceremony. She wore a dress they had bought together, he wore his formal military parade uniform from his time in the commandos. And the rings were the ones they bought last September at Jurong Point.
Several hours after he signed the wedding papers, Mr Koh slipped into a coma.
He never woke up. He died eight days later on Thursday morning.
The New Paper spoke to the grieving widow at his wake.
Says Mrs Koh: "He was so weak, but he still managed to smile, open his eyes and put his thumbprint on the papers. At least I know his last moments were happy."
His last words to her were: "Happy birthday, I love you."
Breaking down, Mrs Koh spoke of the dream they had shared to retire and settle down in their new home in Philippines.
"It was part of our dream. Now the dream is no more," she says.
They met in 2008 at a shopping mall there, and hit it off immediately.
"We were deeply in love," she says.
Four years later, she gave birth to their son there.
"We were so happy. That was perhaps the happiest time of both our lives," she says.
Mr Koh told her he wanted to give their son "proper status" by marrying her. But things dragged on as they had issues with visas and permits.
All this time, the couple would shuttle between Singapore and the Philippines to spend time together.
"We had a lot of happy memories. He is a very responsible and loving man," says Mrs Koh.
In between sobs, she adds: "I'm sorry, I can't find the words."
Mrs Koh says that if she could choose between Mr Koh living and them marrying, she would have wanted him to live.
"But I don't have that power," she says.
"I didn't know how to feel. Happy that we are finally married, or sad. It's a complicated mix.
"I still hoped for a miracle that he would be fine after all, and we could continue living together as we promised."
Mrs Koh intends to return to the Philippines with her son as the cost of living is lower there.
She says: "My mind is a blank. I don't know how to start life again without him.
"We had a lot of plans. Now, I don't even know how to bring up my boy on my own."
"I still hoped for a miracle that he would be fine after all, and we could continue living together as we promised."
- Mrs Edma Koh
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