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Nearly four years after paralyzing accident, bride walks down the aisle at her wedding

This partner, and this walk, represent a triumph – and the climax of a chapter that began four years ago and five miles down the road.
Ally Poole and Amos Grizzard get married at White Crest Farm in Carrollton. Ally uses a wheelchair but was able to stand with the help of her husband.

It looks like a wedding like any other.

There’s a scenic venue, a gathering of family and friends, and one soon-to-be spouse waiting for his partner to walk down the aisle.

But this partner, and this walk, represent a triumph – and the climax of a chapter that began four years ago and five miles down the road.

“There for a while, everything was out of whack," Ally Poole recalled.

Poole had been dating Amos Grizzard for six months. She was an aspiring nurse, driving her dog Lily to the vet on a winding stretch in Carroll County.

“All I remember is seeing a hay truck coming at me, head-on, in my lane,” she recounted.

Poole swerved. Her car flipped. She flew out and landed yards away.

“I took my last breath,” she said. “They had to do compressions and bring me back in the helicopter.”

Poole was life-flighted to Grady Hospital in Atlanta. Her next memories came three weeks later at the Shepherd Center.

“All of my spine was just shattered to pieces," she explained. "Even on the X-ray today, you can see where they couldn’t correct a lot of it.”

“She wrote me a note,‘My nursing career is over',” Poole's mother, Lisa Pope, said. "And I said, ‘No, it’s not. Why would you say that?’ And she said, ‘Because I can’t feel my legs.’”

Doctors told Poole she had a window: up to five years to recover as much as possible. She seized it.

She maxed out on physical therapy. She turned her Instagram account into inspiration art. Thirteen-thousand followers saw photos of Poole pushing back… with her love. Grizzard proposed two years later and had Lily carry the ring.

And Poole?

“The night that we got engaged, I texted my therapist with a picture and said, ‘Are you ready to train me to walk down the aisle?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do this',” Poole said.

The walk is 50 feet. But for Poole, every step is a fight, with her father holding her on one side and her stepfather holding her on the other.

But she makes it. She reaches a destination never more cherished: her partner’s arms. Then she says – and Grizzard repeats – the words that are common to weddings like any other: “I promise to love you and cherish you through whatever life may bring us.”

They’ve already proven it.

If you know of a great untold story of Metro Atlanta, e-mail Matt at mpearl@11alive.com.

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