Her joy in being his wife is palpable. Congratulations to him and best wishes for all future happiness to her.
Posted on 07/12/2008 5:58:47 PM PDT by PotatoHeadMick
Forget spoilt footballers and minor Royals. Yesterday, Miss Michelle Clifford married Lance-Corporal Martyn Compton.
And the terrible injuries he suffered in Afghanistan could not diminish the towering, inspirational love they share
The walk down the aisle yesterday was only a matter of yards. Yet for Martyn Compton it meant everything. Indeed, his determination to make the distance was matched only by that of the beautiful young woman he was about to marry.
And when he falteringly held out his hand for her to slip the gold ring on his finger, they both finally fulfilled the dream they had fought desperately against all the odds to make a reality.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
What a wonderful girl.
Her joy in being his wife is palpable. Congratulations to him and best wishes for all future happiness to her.
One shudders to think of the pain and agony this man has endured. FYI - the pics of him are not for the squeamish.
And what God has joined together, let no man pull asunder.
“Michelle explains. ‘But we learned to take things slowly. Cuddles counted for a lot. I can touch and hold him just as I did before. I think what we have been through takes a relationship to a whole new level. It goes beyond sexual attraction.”
TRUE love.
It requires no further explanation.
Reminds me a bit of the wedding at the end of the classic movie The Best Years of Our Lives.
Not to mention politically incorrect cakes!!! The horror!
He is a survivor and must have a very strong spirit to have coped with his recovery. His bride knows that she has a strong mate.
I don’t cry at weddings...but I will make an exception for this one.
Wishing them all the best this earth has to offer...
Great story of great young people and the immense power of true love.
10: Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11: The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. 12: She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.......
This reminds me of the story of Dave Roever ...
Dave was in Vietnam on a Navy river boat..
A grenade was thrown at him and he went in the water not knowing that much of his skin and flesh had been burnt off his face..
He lost one ear and an eye and was horribly scarred...
When he was flown back to the States, his young wife came into his hospital room and said. “Welcome home, Davey”
They stayed married and went on to have some wonderful children...
Dave became a preacher, and an inspiration to millions..
What a story of of love and courage..May God bless this marriage.
wow, great story. Love conquers all:)
Reminds me of the story of Marine Sgt. Ty Ziegel who suffered terrible injuries from a homicide bomber in Iraq.
She seems the very definition of a radiant bride & looks so happy to be with her beloved.
Best wishes to both of them!
I am humbled by them. Two heroes. They deserve each other. After what they went through, if there was a marriage that is not likely to end in a divorce, it’s this one. God bless and help them.
God bless them...
Is there some place where one could send them a wedding gift? May God bless them.
G-d bless them both and may they have many years of happiness. They should have children because the children will look at his face with nothing but love and that will bring him so much joy.
He gave his face/body for his country and for freedom. His sacrifice makes me cry. But then there is Michael Jackson, who looks the same, and it was all voluntary.
I just thought of something else.
When I first saw the early version (1940s?)of Beauty and the Beast, the Cocteau version, I fell in love with the character of the Beast, and then when he later changed at the end to the insipid looking handsome prince, it ruined the whole thing.
I am not sure about men, but women can fall in love without needing “eye candy.” The essence of the person is what counts.
This couple is nothing less than inspiring. They face a difficult road, but that they’ve gotten it this far is incredible.
The more devout of us should put these young people in their prayers.
Martyn with Michelle before his injuries, which left him with over 70 per cent burns, a broken arm and a bullet in his leg
After:
Wedding bliss: Martyn Compton married Michelle Clifford in Kent on Saturday
He is an amazing person. He now runs a ministry for wounded soldiers, a place to come to heal and figure out their future lives; and he was recently granted the opportunity to start an series of orphanages in Vietnam.
Eagles Summit Ranch offers lift to America’s wounded warriors
By Jean Torkelson Saturday, July 5, 2008
The four men sit in a mountain lodge strumming their guitars. The big man among them stops playing and gestures to the kid with the green mohawk and a lot of baggage from a bloody tour in Iraq.
He’s clearly pleased by what he sees.
“Josh has really pulled out of his funk in the last two weeks,” Dave Roever says. “He said, ‘Bring on the girls!’ “
Translation: Bring on life.
Roever knows it’s a start.
At an age when many are retiring, the 61-year-old Roever - who has spent 40 years as a Christian preacher and motivational speaker - is starting a new venture to help America’s wounded warriors.
From his sprawling, 235-acre Eagles Summit Ranch, Roever offers a unique support system for members of the military - police and firefighters, too - who have sacrificed their bodies, and sometimes their minds, in service to their country.
Here, they learn confidence building and public speaking, so they can inspire others with their stories.
“You have the right, through your experience, to change the world,” Roever likes to tell them.
They can earn college credits, too, led by Roever’s son, Matthew, the ranch’s resident professor. They get advice on launching nonprofits. The ranch is also developing a relationship with a major corporation interested in hiring disabled veterans.
Roever (pronounced Reever) is a drawlin’ Texan and preacher’s kid who started his own career as a public speaker when he was 17. But the real course of his future was set when he came home from Vietnam.
His patched face and stiff handshake came from the blast of a long-ago grenade.
“When I saw myself in the mirror, I tried to take my life by pulling my feeding tubes out,” he recalls. “I really didn’t want to die, but I was so scared.”
Instead, Roever decided to get on with his dream. And last year, on the anniversary of 9/11, the unabashed patriot opened the ranch to provide the kind of support he says was missing to most wounded veterans of Vietnam.
The $3 million ranch was built debt-free thanks to a huge network of private donors and links to major ministries. Some past members of his board came from Billy Graham’s ministry.
And, after some initial worries about traffic and noise, the ranch has become a valued neighbor, says Kit Shy, chairman of the Custer County board of commissioners.
Shy says the county, home to a growing number of retired veterans, has embraced the ranch’s mission: “Through Dave, our community has been able to make a contribution to disabled warriors who are coming home. We feel we’re having kind of a national effect by making Dave successful.”
Roever measures success in warrior terms.
“I’ve got a dream for guys who got a dream,” he says. “It’s bad enough to let the enemy get a shot at ya - but don’t you finish doing to yourself what they couldn’t do!”
‘I’m looking for hope’
“Hey! Want to shave your head?” Steven Husong, 43, teases a visitor.
The gung-ho military recruiter and an inveterate kidder is in a downstairs washroom, renewing the sheen on his bald head.
Husong is one of five guys attending this two-week session, which quickly turns wounded strangers into brothers. Husong got hooked on painkillers after breaking his back in Afghanistan and now wants to set his life in a new direction: “I decided I’m gonna man-up and fix things.”
Filled with guys’ banter and guitar music, the stylishly rustic lodge feels like a cross between a well-run fraternity house and a top-end resort. There’s fine leather furniture and cozy bedrooms (all donated), and animal trophies (”Dave hunts ‘em, and he eats ‘em,” chuckles his wife, Brenda).
The day is filled with classes, activities like horseback riding, and dinners out, compliments of admiring local restaurateurs.
Roever handpicks the wounded warriors from his own visits to hospitals, churches and speaking engagements, and from applications. Guests pay nothing for their stay.
When choosing his warrior- guests, “I’m looking for hope and an ability to express themselves, or an overwhelming desire to. You know, there’s a lot of things you can do with a dream.”
He avoids veterans “who feel all resentment and bitterness, and go off on their country - I don’t have time for that.”
Patriotism marks the group. Douglas Szczepanski, 24, who had his face ripped open by a car bomb in Baghdad, says, “I always wanted to embody the Army’s core values,” and he still does.
Josh Calloway, 22, the young man with the mohawk, had a breakdown in Iraq after watching his team die in a bloodbath. Josh was brought to the ranch by Peter Serrano, 36, a Desert Storm veteran and Florida firefighter who has a startup foundation to help vets like Josh. Invoking a firefighter’s motto, Serrano told the younger man, still plagued by trauma, “I’m not going to leave you behind.”
Toby Bethel, a Florence police officer, was ambushed in 2001 by two gunmen with AK-47s. The award-winning cop and former weightlifter is now paralyzed.
Bethel says he was depressed before coming to Eagles Summit, “hanging around the house, doing nothing.”
Roever quickly arranged to have Bethel speak of his experiences before a local crowd.
“Toby is so shy,” Roever said, “but at the end of his talk, he had 200 people clapping.”
Now, Bethel wants more bookings: “I just want to tell others to never, ever, ever, ever, give up.”
The message is pure Roever.
In July 1969, on a river in Vietnam, the patrol gunner hauled back to throw a grenade. At that instant, a sniper shot the grenade, incinerating Roever’s face. He came home blind, deaf and depressed.
“I wanted to take my life because I was so ugly,” he says.
His sight and hearing came back - a direct healing from God, he believes - and his sense of humor. In the middle of explaining his old injuries, Roever pauses.
“I don’t wanna scare ya, but . . . “ He takes off his fake right ear and gleefully brandishes it.
“Isn’t that cool?”
Spouses suffer, too
Roever and Brenda Draper were high school sweethearts.
“I asked her to marry me when she was 13, and she slapped me,” Roever says with a grin.
Still a teenager when her wounded husband came home from Vietnam, Brenda steeled herself to meet a man with an unrecognizable face. First thing she did, she kissed him. And her first words, “Welcome home, Davey,” set Roever on the path of healing.
Spouses suffer, too, and the ranch welcomes couples. But they get a message different from standard military support groups, Brenda says: “They always gave the wife an excuse to leave. My personal goal is to give spouses an excuse to stay - you can have a great life, kids, a family. It takes a lot of giving and taking, but marriage does anyway.”
Women veterans are also welcome, but in their own two-week session.
This group is knit by male camaraderie. In the classes, Roever, like a dad, speaks about everything from staying away from computer pornography to running a nonprofit with integrity. Most of all, he talks about dreams. With impeccable timing, the 300-pound Roever pauses and looks at his rapt audience. Then, in a voice still raspy from inhaling the grenade explosion, he starts singing the old 1980s pop hit, “Hold on tight to your dreams.”
The song could be an anthem for the ranch.
“If we can present to them a dream, a goal, if they can see a vision that there’s life after injury, then we’ve succeeded,” says Brenda.
She looks at her high school sweetheart. “He’s still my honey.”
Her wounded warrior has his comeback ready. “I ain’t scarred on the inside, am I, honey?”
torkelsonj@RockyMountainNews.com
What a wonderful story! I wish them all the happiness in the world.
“To augment it Martyn is thinking of doing motivational talks and is writing a book about his experiences that will be published next spring.”
I hope he does. Thanks for posting. What a fabulous couple and beautiful wedding photos. May all their dreams come true.
If you look at the other close up of him....she’s right...his eyes still twinkle and his smile is still there.
This scarred soldier reminds me of the flyers who fought the battle of Britain. I understand the way the hurricanes and spitfires were constructed, some of them suffered horrific burns if they survived being shot down. And the wives of these men still loved them despite what happened to them.
Seeing this story is a reminder that there still remains this kind of valor in a world of upside down values.
This movie is in my top 5 greats. A classic of Biblical proportions.
These days Hollywood has not come close to matching the greatness of this "simple" tale of the good guys coming home and taking care of business the only way he/she knew how... self-reliance and hard work.
ping
Funny—she got prettier!
*sniff*
Thanks for the tissues!
This is proof that love conquers all!
May God bless them!
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