A drunk driver killed a bride-to-be in a horrific wrong-way crash in Oklahoma simply weeks earlier than her wedding ceremony — as her fiancé expressed his love of their last moments collectively.
Katelyn Callahan, 23, and Tristen Cherry, 24, had been returning dwelling from the Calf Fry Pageant in Stillwater competition with two youngsters when the alleged boozed-up driver touring the flawed means on Interstate 44 in Oklahoma Metropolis slammed into the automobile round 2:30 a.m. on Might 2, in response to stories.
“I kind of sat up in my seat, and I see headlights,” Cherry, who was driving within the backseat and spent practically a month in a coma, instructed KJRH of the heart-wrenching last seconds earlier than tragedy struck.
“I said, ‘Katelyn, I love you.’ And we hit.”
Callahan, who was driving, was pronounced lifeless on the scene.
The pair, who had been collectively for 3 years, had been set to tie the knot on Might 31 in Bristow.
Cherry, who suffered practically 5 dozen facial fractures, a lacerated kidney, misplaced tooth, had his mouth wired shut and underwent a number of surgical procedures, obtained the devastating information simply days after waking up from his coma, the outlet reported.
“It’s taken me some time,” stated the restaurant supervisor, who has since been discharged.
“Still do, to understand. But it’s not the easiest thing in the world. I talk to Katelyn every day. The most I can ask for at this point is healing. That’s from head to toe. Healing takes time, and time takes healing. So I’m just letting time go by.”
The accused inebriated perpetrator, 29-year-old Sergio Ibarra, was arrested and charged with first-degree manslaughter and three counts of driving beneath the affect, Folks reported.
Ibarra and his 36-year-old passenger had been additionally hospitalized, together with the teenager riders within the mangled automobile, following the tragic incident.
A heartbroken Cherry spent what was imagined to be his wedding ceremony day within the hospital, surrounded by household and members of his bridal get together who gathered to honor the sullen event.
“I saw Katelyn in her wedding dress in pictures,” Cherry stated, KJRH reported.
“She was gorgeous. All my groomsmen came up. Some of her bridesmaids came up. It was her family, my family. It was a great time.”
The couple described their relationship as “the greatest love story this town has ever seen,” in response to their wedding ceremony web site.
Though they went to excessive faculties simply 10 minutes aside, Cherry and his nursing pupil love grew to become “inseparable” after he invited her to be his date his his fraternity’s formal, calling the pairing “God’s plan.”
“The two…still adore the time they first locked eyes and felt the strength they both had for each other, little did they know they’d be getting married in the near future,” the marriage web site stated.
“The love continues to grow as days go by and forever shall they both live healthy and compassionate, sharing their heart and soul, blood in blood out, undying love.”
