A Story to Touch your Heart
Just look at this guy's eyes, as he looks at Her....
There, is a man in Love.
He is from Timor Leste....an Island country in the middle of nowhere....officially part of south east asia.
She is an aussie.....an occupational therapist
He had a car accident, which left him unable to feel anything below his belly button
So, she looks after him....right?.....Nah....it isn't that simple.
People sometimes stare at Helen and her husband Joel, who uses a wheelchair, but after a decade together the couple has come to enjoy challenging stereotypes about relationships and disability.
www.abc.net.au
The pair met in 2011, five years after Joel was involved in a serious road accident during Timor's violent civil war, when his family was forced to flee their home in the capital, Dili.
It was the middle of the night and Joel was asleep in the back seat of a car carrying seven passengers, which crashed into a tree.
When he regained consciousness in hospital, hours later, Joel was unable to feel his legs.
"I was in lots of pain. I was just like crying and I just didn't know what happened to me," he says.
Joel was diagnosed with a spinal cord injury that means he's unable to walk and doesn't have any movement or feeling below his belly button.
Did I say this man is in Love ?
Read the story, and don't drip any of those tears on your keyboard.
"After the accident, I just felt like I couldn't do anything anymore," he says.
"But see, everything's happened. I got a job and got married and moved to Australia.
"The important thing is to give [people] opportunity ... when you give opportunity to them, they will show you what they can do."
www.abc.net.au
