St. Paul, Minn. (AP) — David and Elizabeth Weinlick's life together began like a reality TV show, blossomed into two decades out of a romance novel, and now seems destined to end in tragedy.

David Weinlick and Elizabeth Runze were strangers when they said "I do" in front of thousands of shoppers and in the national spotlight at Minnesota's Mall of America in June 1998. Now it seems the thing that will end what they call "our great love story" is cancer, after David was diagnosed with terminal and inoperable stage IV colon cancer.

They were brought together not by love or mutual attraction but...