In the shaded grove at Rideau Hall where dignitaries plant trees to mark their visit, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge chatted with invited guests after scooping soil onto their own Eastern Hemlock.

But it was one man in a wheelchair who they lingered with the most, a man dying of cancer whose last wish was to meet the royal couple.

Saturday, that wish came true.

Doctors say 47-year-old Terry Joyce of Ottawa has about twelve weeks left to live.

"I'm out of time now, because there is no more they can do," he said.

Joyce said he asked his doctors if it would be possible to be on Parliament Hill on Canada Day, until another opportunity came along.

"He was having a hard time getting on the Hill and we thought ‘Oh, maybe we can get to the rooftop,'" said his friend Maggie Fondong. "When he found out about this about a week ago he thought ‘Oh, well that's one better.'"

As he stood to wait for the royal couple to come his way, Prince William told Joyce to sit down.

Both he and his wife then gave Joyce the meeting he'd been waiting for, and a message of hope.

"He said ‘I hope you will continue to go on,'" Joyce said.

Joyce's eyes may have filled with tears after that moment, but his doctor said the path towards death can be a positive one.

"I mean some people think of palliative care as very sad and dying. . . but we think of it as living," said Dr. Tara Tucker. "How to live the best you can until that final moment."

That brush with royalty, which Joyce said he can't believe actually happened, is playing a big part in the rest of Joyce's life.

And for when the end does arrive, Joyce said he can now die happy.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Stefan Keyes