Our Wedding Day

September 9, 1989

 
Like most young women, it had always been Sandy's dream to walk down the Isle when she got married.  But having been in a wheelchair for over 15 years because of a non-union in her femur (thigh bone) one would think this an impossible dream.  In the fall 0f 1997, pursuing her dream to one day walk again, she helped her doctors design a custom (experimental) titanium pin to hold together the bone in her leg.  The surgery in early 1988 was successful, and in the spring she was given the go-ahead by her surgeon to begin exercising her leg.

In August '88, shortly after the OIF National Conference in California, Dan and Sandy began dating.  With Dan's encouragement and a lot of work on her part, Sandy took her first few steps in the fall.  Sandy continued to work and practice, and slowly she was able to take a few more steps with the aid of a walker that was modified to her size.

Dan formally proposed Christmas morning in 1988, and Sandy increased her efforts to walk.  As plans for the wedding continued, Sandy measured the Isle at the church and laid out the distance of the Isle in the hallway outside her office at work.  Dan continued to encourage and support her, and agreed to carry her up the Isle if she could walk down it.  At every opportunity, she grabbed her walker and worked at reaching that little mark down the hall, slowly making progress as the weeks went by.

The big day was approaching quickly, and Sandy was nearly ready.  She and her bride's maid made a trip to the church, and wearing her wedding dress, Sandy made a trial run down the Isle.  It was far from an easy walk, but she made it!  Everything was ready to go.

Few people knew that Sandy was planning to walk down the Isle at the wedding.  Only our immidiate families and a few close friends had been told before hand.  The majority of guests at the wedding were very suprised when Sandy appeared at the end of the Isle with a walker instead of her wheelchair.  It seemed as though no one breathed as Sandy slowly made her way down the Isle.  Sandy's father was quite nervous and had a strong grip on her arm the entire trip.