The Winning
Vow
Former patient and his
new wife win a national contest with the wedding vows she penned in just
a few minutes.
Written By Bill Sanders
Photography By Kellye Lewis
Peter and Megan met in the chemistry department when they were students at Mississippi College. Paralyzed from the chest down, Peter was a little apprehensive about dating at first. But his wheelchair wasn’t the hindrance.
“We started out as friends,“ Peter says. “We’d go out for coffee, occasionally lunch. It wasn’t until after I graduated from college and moved up to Philadelphia and started grad school that we started a romantic relationship.”
What took him so long? “That was all her fault,” Peter says. “When I was in Mississippi, she was dating another guy. As soon as I found out they had split up, I escalated the relationship.”
Megan likes the idea of sounding diplomatic when speaking of that previous dating relationship. But now that she’s married, there’s no fooling anyone.
“From first time I met him, I knew some girl was going to be lucky, and secretly maybe I was hoping it would be me,” Megan says.
The two now gush over one another with world- class grace.
“She’s a catch, a very special girl,” Peter says. “She has the sweetest personality. When she broke up with her boyfriend, I know there were tons of guys who wanted to date her. I was the lucky one.”
Megan doesn’t see it that way, instead believing that she is the lucky one.
“He’s very handsome, smart and outgoing,” she says. “You just feel good when you are around him. I don’t know one person who doesn’t like him.
“We had a long talk about his injury before we started dating. He asked if it was something I could handle. Of course, I said yes. Now I think,
‘Who wouldn’t want to marry someone like Peter, someone who could handle what he’s handled and have such a great outlook on life?’”
Peter hasn’t regained any sensation and only a little motor function since leaving Shepherd Center seven years ago.
“My biceps work a little, and I have a little bit of finger extension,” he explains. “But I have no grip in my hands. There’s not much there.
“But really, once I decided for myself that it was OK, and I got back to putting myself out there as a confident person, it became easy,” he adds. “Other people are attracted to that.”
Megan certainly was. “I don’t really remember having thoughts about what it meant to be dating someone in a wheelchair,” she says. “I know this, it wasn’t the first thing I noticed about him. Not by a long shot.”