Miracles happen: the paralyzed bride got up and walked to the altar, touching the groom and guests to tears
The bride's passage to the altar is always one of the most exciting parts of the wedding ceremony. In this case, she was more than touching: 25-year-old Jackie Goncher, paralyzed from the neck down from the age of 17, surprised the guests by getting up from a wheelchair and walking down the aisle on her own. Moreover, the girl and her fiance danced their really first dance!
When Jackie was 17 years old, an accident occurred while swimming and the girl suffered a serious spinal injury. She was paralyzed from the neck down and doctors said she would never be able to walk again. She exceeded the expectations of specialists when she was able to stand just six months after the incident. However, for the next eight years, Jackie mostly moved around in a wheelchair.
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At the age of 17, Jackie Goncher was injured in an accident on the water, which left her completely paralyzed from the neck down.
The doctors claimed that she would never be able to walk again.
The first years of therapy were very difficult for Jackie. Being an athlete all her life, she was very worried about the fact that she could not perform even the simplest exercises.
"The first time I decided to go back to the gym, I got on an exercise bike. My legs couldn't pedal fast enough, and the simulator turned off," Jackie recalls.
"I was so upset that I put my head on the simulator and cried."
It took her a long time to find the strength and determination to return to the gym.
"On the wedding day, everyone is looking at you, so you want to feel the most beautiful. I'm absolutely sure it's possible to be a dazzling beauty in a wheelchair, but I didn't want that to define me," says Jackie.
When Jackie appeared at the celebration with her mother on one side and grandfather on the other, no one was surprised to see her in a wheelchair.
But soon all the guests were stunned when she got up and started walking down the aisle eight years after the accident.
Although the groom, Andy Goncher, knew about this surprise in advance, he could not hold back tears.
It was such a touching moment that almost everyone was crying.
Just a year ago, Jackie couldn't stand on her feet for more than 30 minutes due to low blood pressure.
Now she was able to stand for all 45 minutes of the ceremony and most of the five hours while the reception lasted.
The couple had a real first dance, as they had never danced before.
Jackie relied on her husband during the wedding. "He was my walking stick because I was holding on to him all the time."
The bride's mother wanted to capture her daughter dancing again, and as a gift she hired a professional artist to paint this touching moment in watercolor.
Jackie looked beautiful in a pale pink wedding dress and with mermaid green hair.
"It was very emotional. Sometimes I don't even realize how wonderful it is that I walk."
Jackie intends to continue working on herself no less intensively than before the wedding in order to give up the wheelchair forever.
Keywords: Altar | Wheelchair | Paralysis | Wedding | Celebration | Ceremony