After Covering More than 7,000 Weddings, Something New: A Canine Groom

“Wait, give it a chance,” Ms. Wilcox said. “Call this woman and hear what she has to say. You know I’m not a fan of most Valentine’s Day pitches. But this one is about feeling loved and comforted. And that’s what the day should be about, not chocolates and flowers.”

So I called Ms. Smartelli, and she moved me in a most tearful way. She is terminally ill, suffering from a form of pulmonary fibrosis, a respiratory disease.

“My doctors tell me I have maybe one or two good years left,” she said, “so Bernie and I are racing against the clock.”

Ms. Smartelli, who donated a kidney 12 years ago to a childhood friend in Detroit, is still trying to save lives, while at the same time, keeping alive her own childhood dream: to know the joy of a wedding day.

She can do that, she said, by “symbolically marrying Bernie.”

“I can use the venue to stage a fund-raising event that would draw attention to organ-donor groups and animal welfare shelters that lack proper funding,” she said, “and still get to experience the thrill of having a wedding, even if it’s a fake wedding.”

With no significant other in her life, she chose Bernie, a 9-year-old cocker spaniel-poodle mix, to stand in as her groom.

“It would all be in good fun,” she said.

Ms. Smartelli, who maintained a sense of humor throughout our conversation, wondered what her wedding announcement might look like in The Times, so I obliged her.