REUNION

Photo taken by Michael Smith: Jon Bucciarelli, Chris (Amy's cousin, the Denver police officer), and Amy sleeping while Jason is in surgery soon after Jon picked up Amy from the Denver airport.

"When the officer had joined them in the waiting room hours before, both Michael and Jon were startled to be approached by a man in an armed uniform. But they soon discovered he was Amy’s cousin, Chris, a Colorado police officer on duty that night. When he got word of Jason’s injury, he came directly to the hospital. His presence was a gift."

An x-ray taken right after Jason's surgery.

"The surgery was over at 12:30 a.m., and around 1:30 a.m., the surgeon came into the waiting room with good news: the surgery had been a success in stabilizing Jason’s fractured back."

Jason and Amy reunited in the ICU morning after the accident St. Anthony's Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Jason had just been extubated.

"Extubation looks like a traumatic process, but I’m here to tell you it’s nothing to fear. I lay in the bed, thankful to feel my own breath in my throat. The nurse left for a few minutes, but she returned quickly, announcing, 'Looks like you have some visitors!' She led Jon and Michael into the room, and then I saw the most beautiful sight of all, Amy."

Jason's broken thumb after ski trip when Amy first started liking him in December, 1997.

"Mountains, valleys, and brokenness. It’s been a strong theme in our lives. Our relationship started with a broken thumb near the top of a mountain. And 25 years later, we would be severely tested by a broken back near the bottom of a different mountain."

Jason and Amy on their wedding day, May 15, 1999, with Mark Price, who sang at their wedding.

"As a young bride and groom on our wedding day, we vowed to each other 'in sickness and in health.' We imagined ups and downs, highs and lows. We couldn’t have imagined a valley as deep as this one."