A father-of-two has shared an emotional post about marrying his teenage crush after she was disfigured in a horrific accident.
Jayaprakash met Sunitha when he was just 17 and instantly fell for her. His “heart sulked every time [he] saw her with someone else” so had to stop talking to her.
They reconnected a couple of years later but only sporadically, then in 2007 he got a call from a mutual friend saying she had been in an accident.
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“I thought it would be something minor, so I called her two days later. I did not recognise the voice that answered,” he told Being You.
“When I went to visit, I saw a person with no hair, a disfigured face, no nose, no mouth and no teeth, walking like a 90-year-old.
“I was stunned. I broke down. That moment, I realised that I love her.”
Later that night, Jayaprakash sent her a text saying he was the only person who could look after her and asked her to marry him.
“There were people who questioned why we needed a wedding now,” he said. “They even asked her not to have babies because they’d have her face.
“People still look at her with pity and think I did a big thing by marrying her. The reality is, I married the love of my life and my life changed for the better. “
Jayprakash said love is not about “external beauty”.
“It is a connection of souls. It feels right. All I know is that I love her to the moon and back, infinity and beyond, forever,” he said.
Sunitha’s also told Being You. her version of the story and how jarring it was to go from being beautiful to a person whose friends were scared to visit.
“I was the girl everyone was jealous off back then. I had boyfriends, guys would want my attention, and I knew I was pretty,” she said.
Then the car accident happened. While Sunitha was asleep in the back, the car turned three times, entangling her hair and badly hurting her.
“For the longest time, mirrors were removed from my room so I would not see my face,” she revealed.
“The first time I caught a glimpse of myself, on a reflection on the elevator doors, I was disappointed and then scared.
“There was a big, crooked face with a hole in the middle staring back at me. Between 2011 and 2014, I had twenty-seven surgeries.
“Today, I don’t have taste senses or tear glands. I cannot smell anything more than shots. I cannot chew food or close my mouth.”
Now, the couple is married and have two beautiful children together, Atmia and Atmik.
“I am told that I am blessed and I am a miracle,” Sunitha said.
“Miracles have a way of making you want to give more back. They are what make the world go ‘round.”