When a woman with amnesia couldn’t remember her wedding, her husband did something she’d never forget
Jeremy and Justice, from Bristol, Tennessee, have been in each others’ lives for decades — ever since kindergarten, in fact. When Justice told Jeremy to go away because he “had cooties,” she had no idea that they would end up being high school sweethearts, then would get married in August of 2014. But Justice was only able to remember their beautiful wedding for 19 days.
Not even three weeks after the wedding, Justice was driving to meet up with Jeremy after he was finished with work. As she was making a left turn, a car plowed into the side of her car. She was almost killed on impact, but she survived, though with countless injuries. The worst injury was something that Justice and Jeremy only recognized a month and a half later: Justice didn’t remember their wedding.
“There was all these wedding pictures all around. It was me and Jeremy and all this paperwork that said, ‘Justice Stamper.’ And I was like, ‘What is goin’ on?’” Justice told Today.
The awful car accident had totally wiped away over a month of Justice’s life from her memory. . . including her wedding with her high school sweetheart. “I was absolutely heartbroken. I was sick to my stomach,” Jeremy told Today. “I don’t know why I said it, but instantly I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ll do it again.’”
On May 14th of this year, Jeremy created a GoFundMe entitled “The Stamper Wedding Round 2,” imploring his friends and family to help them fund another wedding to replace the hole in his wife’s memory. “We have truly been through some rough times and we really could use any help anyone can offer,” Jeremy wrote on the GoFundMe. “We are doing this [fundraiser] to take the load off of us and to help us do it again on our one year [anniversary] so we can have a memory that we both can talk about and reminisce without someone getting upset.”
Jeremy created a goal of $5,000 “to allow us to comfortably afford this . . . over that will make it easier on us to make it happen and give [Justice] the wedding she can’t forget no matter what,” he wrote on the site. The goal was not only to throw a ceremony that Justice would remember, but to make it different enough from the first wedding, in case Justice ever regained her memory.
The couple nearly doubled their goal at $9,340, thanks to the kind donations of 359 people. “I picked up the phone and, in about ten minutes, I had the entire wedding, just about everything donated,” Jeremy told Today.
So this past Saturday, on their first wedding anniversary, the Stampers had their second wedding. . . and it was absolutely beautiful.
The morning of the wedding, the couple spent the whole day apart, communicating only through text and phone calls. “Seeing her come down the aisle to me and seeing how happy she is, that’s going to be one of my most precious memories,” Jeremy told WCYB on the day of the wedding.
The wedding, complete with a horse-drawn carriage, took place underneath a beautiful gazebo at Hungry Mother State Park in Marion. The gazebo was adorned with sunflowers, as was the rest of the wedding — a theme the couple had chosen for their first wedding as well. “[It’s] just something that fits us so well,” Justice told WCYB. “And I’m excited to have something that we enjoy so much be a part of our wedding.”
Surrounded by their friends and family, Justice and Jeremy were able to pronounce their love for each other once again. Together, they will remember this day for the rest of their lives.
“Consider this the best gift that Jeremy could give you — your wedding back,” the couple’s pastor said during the ceremony, according to WCYB.
No, I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying. What a wonderful, beautiful story — not only because of Justice and Jeremy’s love, but because of the people who came together to help this couple have a special day they both could remember.
(Images via Facebook)
