Often life hits you hard that it becomes difficult for you to stand up again both physically and mentally. And whenever such things happen you are bound to question your existence and most of the people in such cases surrender themselves and give up in front of the hardships. At this point, the near and dear also seem to distance themselves from the person let alone support him/her. But this wasn’t the case with Kiersten Downs, she not only married the love of her life despite his slight disability but showed the world that love conquers all. In a world when she was setting up new benchmarks in love, her groom was too a step ahead of her and amazed everyone present in the room on their wedding day.
Meet Kiersten And Thomas
If there’s any truth in the saying that love is never flawless, then Kiersten And Thomas would be an apt example of the same. They both were associated with the army but at different times of their lives and were honored during their service in the army. And the way they met still amazes many people. But then for Thomas, it was basically “love at first sight”.
Joining Air Force
The bride-to-be, Kiersten Downs, was always inspired by her grandfather who had served in World War II and was determined to join the army from her childhood. She was brave and accepted life’s challenges happily. Because of her daring personality, she was given the task to load bombs. She would happily accept whatever task she was given and was always appreciated. But one incident changed her whole life. What might have happened that the brave lady thought of stepping back for a while?
The Incident
It was the year 2006, Kiersten had just arrived at the Iraqi airbase to fulfill her task but her heart ached upon seeing the sight of the bombs hitting Iraqi buildings. The time stood still as she saw thousands of people rushed to the local hospitals and she was forced to reconsider the choices she had made in her life.
Taking A Step Back
No matter how smooth your life is going on, life has its own way to slow down your pace sometimes but then everything happens for good. But here, Kiersten wasn’t able to find any good learning from her recent journey to Iraq. For her, it had been a devasting experience. It was the first time in all the years that she had served in the army that she wanted to take a step back in her life and find the meaning of her life again.
Feelings
When she returned home she was all broken in pieces and it was becoming hard for her to gather them all to get back on track. Though she was awarded for her services in Iraq and everyone was proud of her, nothing was making any difference in her life. She had become quiet and distance her self from people, it was evident that she needed a little time to process what she had experienced during the war.
Finding Ways
After coming home she was having a hard time concentrating on things and started to search for ways to cope up with the same. She took a few days off to concentrate on her mental health. A few days after she had arrived back she thought of an amazing idea: to ride a bike across the country. At first, it seemed to be a little hypothetical but she had made up her mind. Would this idea help her get over the trauma she was experiencing?
Preparations And Training
Though she thought she had found a way but it wasn’t that easy as it seemed to be. This task would require a lot of training and preparations under a guide. There were a lot of surprises that were waiting to come in her way and one of them was quite surprising and risky than the others. She found out that – California was not particularly a flat state, the moment she began to pedal on the road. Because of the mountainous landscape and a lot of sharp angles and steep roads, she was unaware of the threat she was putting her life into.
Untoward Event
She had started to work on her idea and soon she was going to hit the road on her cycle. Then one day, when she was going on a mountainous region with high speed exerting all her power with every pedal, suddenly the front wheel of her bike hit a pothole. She tried to stop her cycle with a break but she flew off her bike and fell hard on the asphalt. She saw her life flash in front of her eyes when she saw a huge truck arriving her way. What would she do now?
Near-death Experience
Her body was giving up on her as the truck got near but her undying will helped her get back on her bike and manage to get on a safer side. As she pushed herself she saw the truck losing its balance on the same spot she had fallen and but luckily it balanced itself again. Kiersten was startled and numb to pick her self up. Her legs were in unimaginable pain still she limped for 6 long miles before she sighted any other human and luckily the person was her mother.
A Blow
Despite she was saved by her mother, the incident had caused her more harm than the war in Iraq. So, on her mother’s persistent request, she took a break to focus on her health. But she wasn’t the one who would just sit back, so she started to raise money for the Student Veterans of America. Soon this became a big movement and she received enormous help from the students all over the country. Many of them ended up doing the cross-country ride in solidarity.
The Groom
When Kiersten was facing such hurdles, Thomas’s life wasn’t any smooth too. In 2004, he had joined the Air Force and worked as a Tactical Aircraft Maintenance Technician. He too earned the rank of staff sergeant and was a well-respected member of his team. However, just like his bride-to-be, he too went through a tragic incident in his life which changed his life forever.
The Accident
33-year-old Thomas Martineau had returned from his duty after suffering no injuries. But time can never be always on your side and it seemed like time had turned away its head from Thomas soon after his return. The other day, he met with a terrible motorbike accident which paralyzed his both legs. This broke him from within. Would he able to deal with it?
Depressed
The incident depressed him and he was unable to focus on his work. So he took some time off work and spent it with his kids. He tried to give hope to his kids and assured them that things would be fine soon so that his kids won’t get upset, but deep within he was losing every hope to recover. After a failed marriage, he also had left the thought of ever getting into the alliance again. Wondering how things would have changed?
A Decade Later
Kiersten had not stopped doing her charity work, so as a next task, she started recruiting for a disabled veteran basketball team. And this was how these two love birds met. It didn’t take them a long time before they started talking and it was an instant connection between them even before they met in person. Would they be able to recognize the feelings that they had started to feel for each other?
Lady At Rescue
After he had passed the criterion and got selected for the basketball team, Thomas found himself in need of some help. And Kiersten came as a knight in shining armor with a box of Thai food. Ironically Thomas didn’t like the food but was bewitched by Kiersten as she stepped into the room. And the man who had vowed never to marry again was forced to reconsider his decision. Later when he recalled the whole incident he said: “The food was horrible, but I knew the moment she opened the door she was the one.”
History
It’s easy to fall in love but it’s difficult when it comes to spending your life with that person and accepting each other’s past. The same situation was faced by the couple but when people are meant to be with each other they find a way to deal with the hurdles that come in their way. So when Kiersten opened up about her reluctance to get married he too said that he had a couple of kids from his past relationship and was extremely dedicated to them. Would they be able to sort out their differences?
Love Conquers All
So when they had finally bared themselves in front of each other, they found that they were so alike underneath. Both were patriotic, both had felt the pain one way or the other and both were reluctant to get married. But despite all the differences, they were sure about one thing that they loved each other and wanted to spend the rest of their life with each other. What would be their next step?
Getting Hitched
So keeping aside all the complication they finally went ahead with the idea of getting married. When they broke the news to their family they were extremely happy. Soon they started the preparations for their marriage and now most of their discussions would include which band they wanted on their reception and what dessert would be there at the party. Things were going smooth until they started encountering sudden bumps that had the potential to ruin their plan.
Sudden Bumps
35-year-old Kiersten Downs and 33-year-old Thomas Martineau, who had talked on facebook for the first time were now deciding to get hitched. Despite the challenges that they were facing or had faced in their past the idea of getting married to the love of their life was giving hope for a better future. Until the sudden bumps started to occur one by one in their lives.
Shifting The Dates
Just when they had shifted their dates to December 2016, so that Kiersten’s grandmother could attend their nuptials, another problem knocked at their door. A few days before the wedding, Thomas suffered from an unseen problem due to his paralysis and was taken to the hospital immediately afterward. This was something they had not seen coming and the condition was pretty much serious. Would they be able to face the unforeseen problem?
Rescheduling Dates
They wanted to get married as soon as possible but nothing was important than the groom’s health for Kiersten. So without giving it another thought they rescheduled their wedding to March 2017. “Being in the chair, I thought I could never be able to live up to being the husband that she could have,” he said. “That was a fear I always had: Having the wedding…and having to settle for things as they were.”
Wedding Date
After all the unforeseen hurdles, they were finally able to fix a wedding date. Everyone was happy that things were getting back on track. So they started to prepare for the wedding venue, the bride and groom’s dresses, the theme party they were going to host after the wedding and most importantly about the dance after their wedding. Midst of all Kiersten was also studying for her Ph.D. in applied anthropology at grad school. Would now things be as smooth as they seemed to be?
Secret Planning
When everyone was planning for the wedding, the groom had something else on his mind. So secretly he went on to plan a surprise for his love. And started to think of all the ways in which he could execute the plan without letting her know. It wasn’t really difficult though as she was busy with her study and wedding plans. What was the groom planning and would the bride come to know about what was happening?
The Wedding Dance
So after rescheduling the wedding for the 3rd time, they were hoping that this would be the final date and everything was set, there were certain things that needed the attention. One of them was their first dance.“I thought I was going to sit on his lap and roll around and grab the kids to dance and sort of improvise,” she said. Everyone was curious about their first dance. But the groom had some other plans.
The Top-Secret
During the couple’s time in the army, they had met a lot of different people from different backgrounds. One such friend was Stephen Hill, whom the bride had invited as a guest but without having a clue about his involvement in her groom’s top-secret plan. Stephen Hill was basically a medical sergeant by profession but later became a lead trainer at Tampa’s Step Spinal Cord Injury Recovery Center. How did they meet in the first place?
The Planning
Coincidently, it was the same place where Thomas had recovered from his injuries. Stephen Hill was the man who was training Thomas to get into shape before the wedding so to execute his plan on the wedding. Stephen Hill was the only person he could go to. The groom didn’t even tell about the training routine to his bride-to-be. So, both the boys started planning for an unknown yet surprising gift of Kiersten’s life.
The Special Day
So finally the much-awaited day came for which the couple and the others were doing preparations. It was a cold day in Tampa but the excitement of the wedding was so high that the people completely forgot about the chilling weather. The bride’s excitement was peak and she woke up even before the alarm rang. Finally, the day had come for which she had been waiting for years.
Getting Ready
She had worn the wedding gown that she was desperate to wear and was doing her hair, totally clueless about the surprise his groom-to-be has planned for their wedding. Thomas, on the other hand, was more nervous than excited as finally, he would be executing his plan. Astonishingly, there were only 2 other people except him who knew about his plan and they were the wedding planner and his trainer.
Trusting The Journey
Although he was having numerous thoughts in his mind, he had to trust the journey and have faith in himself and his trainer as they had put a lot of effort to make his plan a success. So for their endless efforts, he tried to think positively. And then finally the time came when the couple had to take vows and the bride and groom along with the guest gathered at the destined place.
At The Altar
The groom came to the venue and everyone was awestruck by his looks, he was looking like a prince waiting for her princess on the white horse just to take her with him and give her all the happiness that she deserved for the rest of her life. The moment was so majestic that people in the ground were overwhelmed by emotions. Now they were all waiting for the beautiful bride.
The Beautiful Bride
After the groom had taken everyone’s breath away with his stunning looks, the relatives were now waiting for the beautiful bride to walk down the aisle. And when the bride came down the aisle in her beautiful white lace dress, nobody batted an eyelid. In everyone’s presence, they recited their vows and kissed each other. The moment was so magical that everyone’s eyes were filled with tears.
Executing The Plan
When they had been declared husband and wife, it was the time when Thomas would unravel the gift that he had been preparing for a while. Stephen Hill pulled him in the corner to discuss their plan. “Steve came on the day of the wedding, and he was sure it was going to work,” he said. “He was literally running around getting gear during the ceremony. It wasn’t until pictures afterward, the wedding planner, who was the only person in the loop, came and grabbed me.”Would they be able to successfully execute their plan?
The Dance
All the public had gathered in the barn which was turned into their wedding venue and was waiting for their first dance after the sumptuous wedding. The bride was excited as well as nervous her first dance with her groom after the wedding. All the eyes were on the bride and she was searching for her groom expectantly who was nowhere in the sight. She waited for a while but then grew suspicious. What would she do now?
Where Was Thomas?
Her suspicion turned into anxiety because it had been a while still there was no clue of him. Though the wedding planner Michelle had assured her that he had just gone to the washroom but her instinct wouldn’t believe what she was saying. And now a tear or two were coming out of her eyes and she prayed for his wellbeing. Where did Thomas go just after the wedding? Was he fine?
Waiting
She was waiting outside the barn to look for her husband and at that moment the song “Unbreaking Your Heart,” started to play which astonished her. Michelle, the wedding planner dragged her inside the barn. For a moment nothing made sense to her. Michelle told her that Thomas was waiting for her in the barn’s secondary entrance. After she was reassured she finally calmed down.
Surprise
As she walked towards the second entrance she was astonished by something she saw. “I danced my way in and had to adjust my eyes because something was different,” she told in an interview. Surprisingly, Thomas was not sitting in his wheelchair as usual but he was standing straight in the midst of the dance floor. She ran towards him and held him firmly by wrapping her arms around his waist.
Revelations
Watching the groom on his feet was not just joyous for the public but was perplexing too. But soon it the mystery was unraveled in front of the people and his bride. There was a system of wires which was attached to the ceiling of the barn as a pulley which was supporting the harness that held the veteran upright. The bride was overwhelmed and was unable to control her tears and the groom’s kids were so happy watching her father putting efforts.
Amazed
His kids too ran towards him to hug both of them as it was a delightful scene for both his kids. The public couldn’t withhold their emotions and clapped for them loudly. Thomas who was first nervous with the arrangement was now feeling more confident. They started to dance on the song that was playing in the background. People started to click the photo of the couple as they continued to dance to their favorite song.
The Community
Though she appreciated her husband’s effort, still she was apprehensive about the harness. Thomas calmed her down saying that they had eliminated every foreseen risk. He also told her that they had been practicing the dance for a while so she need not worry about anything. He swung her around and the couple danced all night without a break and luckily the harness trick worked.
Good Vibes
“When you surround yourself with a good community, anything can happen. We met people who put us in touch with Steve, through those open mics — they all had an incredible impact on us,” Thomas said. It was the most amazing moment in the life of the couple and this wedding and the groom’s efforts would be remembered by everyone for the rest of her life.
Happily Ever After
It was all like a dream wedding despite being exhausting, the groom’s effort finally paid off. “I can’t express enough how important it is to…engage with the communities around you, whether they have a past in the military or they are civilians,” she said. “[B]uilding relationships is the key to successfully reintegrating after we leave the military.”
Perfect Together
They showed the world that you can love someone at their best times but loving a person when they can’t even love themselves is a big task. Marriage is an alliance of two people in which they have to take care of each other but when it comes to love the other person might have more responsibilities towards his/her mate. And stories like these become a living example of love for the rest of the generations to com