Every once in a while, a story comes along that is a welcome break from the crime and tragic crashes, the fatalities and fires, the relentless milieu of man’s inhumanity to man.
Every once in a while a story comes along that reminds you to be grateful for the things you usually take for granted – a place to live, your health, the people that you love, and more importantly, the folks who love you.
Appropriately, just in time for Valentine’s Day, the tale of Paul Thomson and Carla Henderson fits the bill.
In 2003, while behind the wheel of his car, Paul suffered an intracranial hemorrhage, resulting in serious brain damage. He spent three months in a coma and seven months in hospital learning how to eat, walk and talk again.
While he has made remarkable progress over the years, today, at 48 years old, he is unable to live or work independently. Lately, life had become... a little lonely.
Carla experienced a similar struggle to survive.
In 1993, when Carla was just 15, she and her two older sisters were in a horrific car accident that killed Carla’s sister Tricia, 20, and injured her other sister Krista, 18. Carla suffered a severe head injury.
She spent 22 months in hospital – much of the time with a feeding tube and ventilator keeping her alive. She was told she would never walk, talk or breathe on her own.
As Carla, now 34, says, “I showed them.” She resides in an assisted-living home and is working on learning to walk again.
With all the significant challenges that people with acquired brain injuries face – physical and cognitive disabilities; finding appropriate living arrangements; limited incomes; fractured lives and families – finding love must surely seem out of reach.
That’s what Paul and Carla thought – until they met each other at a brain injury support group at Semiahmoo House Society.
It was an instant mutual attraction, and caregivers say Paul and Carla have blossomed amid their devotion to one another.
Today – if Carla says yes to Paul’s proposal – they will become betrothed.
And thanks to José Latchinian, owner of José and Company Custom Jewelers in South Surrey, Paul will have a stunning gold and diamond band to slip on Carla’s finger – a gift Paul never dreamed he could afford. Jose sold the $1,500 ring to Paul for what Paul’s budget allowed: $300.
Overcoming tremendous personal hardship. Love at first sight. And a generous business owner who says he’s the one who’s honoured for being able to donate an expensive ring so a couple challenged by adversity can get engaged in style.
Now that’s our kind of story.