Better together

From left are Ronald McCoy, Marsha Banner, Quincy and Craig McCoy. Quincy and Craig recently renewed their marriage vows after she recovered from a life-threatening illness. Ronald McCoy, Craig’s brother and pastor of Faith, Hope and Love Community Church, officiated. Banner is the couple’s goddaughter. [Photo by Andy Fillmore]

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Posted December 16, 2024 | By Andy Fillmore, [email protected]

Quincy and Craig McCoy planned, like many couples, to renew their wedding vows on their 30th wedding anniversary, which was Dec. 26, 2022. But the vow renewal ceremony would have to wait.

Quincy, 55, an Ocala native, was diagnosed in 2021 with triple negative stage four breast cancer and would undergo a double mastectomy and an aggressive chemotherapy program that at times left her extremely weak and sick. The near fatal illness and months of treatment were hard.

Quincy’s care providers during her battle with cancer included Ocala Family Medical Center, Robert Boissoneault Oncology Institute, Ocala Breast & General Surgery and Ocala Oncology.

Tiffany Vanlue with Ocala Oncology said Craig was ever present during the chemotherapy treatments and waited in his car and she shuttled updates to him when he couldn’t be inside during the COVID pandemic.

The couple’s daughter, Tatyna McCoy, 28, a juvenile detention center program manager, relocated to Ocala from Tallahassee in 2021 to help with her mother’s care. She remarked on her mom’s strength and said her parents are “truly in love” and got through the crisis “together.”

Family member Cheryl Morrison-White called Quincy a “tough cookie, who is her own boss.”

Vanlue said that “not everyone beats” the type of cancer Quincy suffered and added that she had seen “her battle scars.”
On Dec. 7 this year, Vanlue was a guest at the ceremony where Quincy, who is now “100% cancer free,” and Craig finally got to renew their vows.

Quincy wrote in a letter announcing the date of the vow renewal ceremony that she “didn’t know if she would make it” but that Craig was there every step of the way to lift her up when she fell.

“Through this terrifying time my husband never left my side. He was my peace, my comfort, my help and my shoulder to lean on,” Quincy wrote in part.

The ceremony in early December took place at Pine Haven Ranch, a 230-acre rustic wedding venue in Citra. Tatyna said that in a letter Quincy read aloud at the start of the event, her mother told the “love story” of how her father helped her through the illness.

Family friend Jocelyn Watkins said she cried during the reading of the “beautiful” letter, which “set the tone” for the ceremony, while Naranja James said the reading of the letter was “awesome.”

About 250 family members and friends attended the event, which was coordinated by Yvette Anderson and Jocelyn Watkins. Craig’s brother, Rev. Ronald McCoy of Faith, Hope and Love Community Church in Anthony, officiated.

“We came together in support of Craig and Quincy McCoy to witness the renewal of vows of a marriage of 32 years, which is worth celebrating,” Ronald McCoy stated. “Their lives together as a married couple display what a marriage should look like and what it takes to remain married. They are what I would call a team and value what the other brings to the marriage. Craig and Quincy have had their share of good days and bad days, but love and respect got them through it. They are always together.”

Ola Brown, Craig’s aunt, said the couple’s loving relationship is a “tribute to God.”
Lincoln Mitchell, a longtime family friend, said the vow renewal was a “great ceremony” and he could understand the path Quincy walked following the loss of his mother in 2021, who had suffered with cancer.

Bettye Bright, a friend of the couple through church, described the ceremony in a text: “After the groomsmen escorted the bridesmaids in, they returned to line up along both sides of the main aisle. As Craig entered, he stopped by each who helped him finish dressing … buttoned his cuffs, another straightened his collar, one put his tie on. Before Quincy entered, she spoke about their years together and about her illness and how he had always supported and been there for her. She was escorted in by her father-in-law, Arthur McCoy. It was a wonderful day for the McCoys.”

Along with all the touches of a traditional wedding ceremony, the room also contained remembrances of lost loved ones.

Family member Clorisa Williams said the ceremony was “gorgeous, beautiful and very classy,” and commented about the couple’s shared loyalty. Family friends Florence Keene, Camela Welcome, Susan Wing, Lisa Wright, Angela Boone and Timothy Yarn also attended the ceremony.

T-shirts the couple had printed for the event read: “We still do” on the front and “We loved it so much the first 32 years we’re doing it again” on the back.

Marsha Banner, Quincy and Craig’s goddaughter, flew in from Brooklyn, New York, for the event.

“Quincy and Craig prove love is real and possible. God loves these two … they stuck together,” Banner said at a gathering before the event.

The journey as husband and wife for Quincy and Craig winds back to 1987, when they were students at North Marion High School. He was in a hallway doing some last-minute studying before class when she approached him and said he should have studied at home and that he could have studied with her. They married five years later and moved to Atlanta in 2008, then returned here a few years later.

Craig described his wife’s illness and treatment as at times “horrific.” He said they took turns daily reading from a list of prayers.

He said that even when Quincy was in very critical condition, she was thinking of what was best for her family and how he could best carry on.

“Who does that?” he asked.