Widow of local marine remembers her husband after his brutal battle against cancer

By Mike Dardis

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    CINCINNATI (WLWT) — Four years ago at this time, a young couple was moving into their dream home on the west side.

Four years later, a 29-year-old woman is now a widow. Her husband’s funeral was yesterday after a brutal battle against cancer.

Now, she’s just trying to figure out a way to stay in that home.

At only 29 years old, Jenna Weber is way too young for experiences like these.

Once a cheerleader at Oak Hills, she fell in love with her high school sweetheart, the Highlanders football star.

On March 18, the guy who flirted with her, tugging at her hair in 10th grade math class, was gone.

“He just told me and his mom that he can’t keep doing this and he can’t keep feeling like this. I told him, ‘I know I understand,'” Weber said.

Tim Weber was a middle child with a brother and sister, so outgoing and likable his social family extended far beyond.

But his best friend was Jenna, the woman he married in 2018.

A year ago, that strong bond was needed more than ever before.

“He felt like his back was hurting, and a couple of days later, his groin was hurting and then his shoulder was hurting. A couple of weeks later, he had a sore throat, a splotchy rash on his back. Like 3 in the morning, he woke me up and said I have to go to the ER, I’m in so much pain with my stomach,” Jenna said.

They discovered the guy who traveled the world and served his country as a Marine had a blood cancer known as AML, Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

“Immediately, we were both scared to death. He started crying and he’s not a crier. He said ‘I’m scared,’ and I said, ‘so am I,'” Jenna said.

Tim’s Marine buddy Sean “Frank” Fennessy was devastated. They met as military rookies and after starting civilian life again, Frank would make the drive from Indianapolis once or twice a month to Tim and Jenna’s home in Bridgetown.

Fennessy can’t believe his buddy is gone.

“Nothing can prepare you for that. It broke me and my wife’s heart, because they’re not so much friends anymore, but family. It was just tough,” Fennessy said.

Jenna, Tim and Tim’s mother, Laura, spent six months down in Houston, Texas, at the world-renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center.

After 33 years at Children’s Hospital, Tim’s mom had run out of vacation, sick time and family leave. She had to give up her job.

Choosing her boy over a career was an easy decision.

“I slept in the room where he was sleeping in a chair. I set my alarm for every hour to two hours to make sure he got his medications. I felt like a mom,” Laura said.

In early March, this rare disease was winning, but the guy who worked on flight crews for military planes was still trying to spread his wings.

Tim and Jenna were back home on the West Side and starting to look at new medical strategies. But Tim was getting weaker and before they could launch their new plans, his body gave out. He died within a handful of weeks at 29 years old.

Jenna talks about their final moments.

“He told me he was sorry. I told him you have nothing to be sorry about. He told me I was the best wife ever.”

Life without Tim.

It’s a reality Jenna is wrestling with. A widow in her 20s in a home filled with memories she built with her best friend.

Her dream is to figure out a way to stay here.

“I just feel like he is still with me here, and I really want to keep the house. But financially, I don’t know how to make it work, with all the bills and one income,” Jenna said. “I have a feeling Tim will figure out a way to help.”

Tim’s family doctor believes his exposure to the carcinogen benzene while working around jet fuel could be connected to the cancer.

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