Kim Sjostrom wanted a real-life version of the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which played in the background as friends fixed her hair and makeup before her own marriage ceremony.
But less than an hour after she and Teddy Efkarpides were wed, Sjostrom crumpled in her husband's arms during a Greek song that means "
At 36, Sjostrom was dead from heart disease.
The wedding had became a project at
"It was perfect for her," said Dominic Church, the minister friend.
Sjostrom carried blue and white flowers during the ceremony — the colors of the Greek flag — as she exchanged vows with Efkarpides, a 43-year-old carpenter and Navy veteran. They had met three years to the day before the Jan. 19 wedding.
During the couple's first dance, Sjostrom complained of being lightheaded. Efkarpides thought his wife, a diabetic, needed sugar, but she collapsed.
Wedding guests, paramedics and doctors at a nearby hospital were unable to revive her.
She had a previous cardiac episode in her 20s and was a poster child — literally — for juvenile diabetes, relatives and friends said. Efkarpides recalled seeing the poster featuring her on
He consoles himself by reading a list of "101 Reasons Why I Love You" that Sjostrom gave him on their first Christmas together. "Number 1. You make me smile."
No. 98 is especially difficult: "You're the one I want to grow old with."
Without God, our Husband, our Lord and Master, all friends and companions are like the Messenger of Death. Ang 133 Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji
In the love of duality, the soul-bride is ruined; around her neck she wears the noose of Death. Ang 134 Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji
Some do not think of death; they entertain great hopes. Ang 143 Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji
