Love Has No Limit: Taylor Morris & Danielle Kelly

“We still laugh every day, we still have fun with each other, we still do the things that we love to do…and we still plan to live the life that we've always planned on living together”

I’m sure we all stop and think when we are in a relationship with someone we love to bits, what would I do if something serious happened to one of us? Would it break me, would I step up to the plate? Would I become weak or would I be strong?

I suppose when Danielle Kelly had this conversation with herself she decided she would go hard, and reading the story of she and boyfriend, Taylor Morris, I have never been so touched by a partners’ dedication.

Taylor Morris has had a fantastic road to recovery so far. He’s positive and inspiring, proving to many that the human body is merely just a vessel but has nothing on our spirit. My fear is what road would he have taken if he didn’t have Danielle by his side?

Taylor (right) in Afghanistan

Danielle and Taylor were high school sweethearts from Cedar Falls, Iowa. Shortly after school, Taylor joined the Navy and quickly worked his way up to becoming part of an elite class of soldiers, the Explosive Ordinance Disposal specialists, made famous in the Oscar-winning film, The Hurt Locker. They are the first men on the battlefield, putting themselves in harms way to tackle unexploded IED's. Taylor was deployed to Afghanistan in February 2012 for 7 months.

At 23 years old, Taylor Morris became one of five surviving quadruple amputees (in the US) when he stepped on an unexploded device on May 3rd 2012. 

On their blog Danielle writes:

While Taylor was deployed we would talked nonstop about how excited we were to be together again.  We would talk about all the things we had planned for the future. What trips we were going to take. Where we were going to live once he was out of the Navy.  How excited we were to be around family and friends.  What jobs he would like to do beyond EOD.  My job and how I was going to make it big in the real estate world, open my own firm, buy rental properties, and manage them.  How we wanted to get married but not have kids right away because we wanted to live an adventurous, spontaneous, fun lifestyle before starting a family.  We wanted to go hiking and camping.  We wanted to sky dive (we’ve tried a handful of times but it never worked out with the weather). We wanted to scuba dive off a tropical island. We wanted to bungee jump off a bridge over some water.  We wanted to go on this motorcycle ride through Africa.  We had our whole lives planned out.  But I guess the joke is on us because you can’t plan life. Life just happens.

The video below really illustrates the struggles and triumphs that followed (there will be tears). There are really no words to illustrate this beautiful love story, so you’re best to watch below and get caught up:

Within 3 days of returning to the United States, Danielle was at Taylors’ side. There she remained a permanent fixture as Taylor recovered from his surgery, and cheered him on as he took his first steps on his newly fitted prosthesis.

Danielle in hospital with Taylor

By June they’d moved into an outpatient apartment where life continued as usual, with Danielle and Taylor shopping for essentials like hangers, toilet paper… building their life together from the ground up. When friend Tim Dodd visited the couple in DC he said of Danielle: 

"She helps Taylor cause mischief around the hospital. Things like drag racing wheelchairs against him or stealing the whole two gallon tub of ice cream from the hospital freezer, she helps Taylor stay Taylor."

Danielle and Taylor reminded themselves of plans they had together before his injury, dreams they did not plan on discarding. The couple had always had a love of water sports and dreamed of owning a log cabin right on the lake so they could live a life full of activity. An online website and its’ followers helped make their dream a reality, by donating more the $250,000 towards the future purchase of a cabin.

In July 2012, Taylor and Danielle were invited with several other wounded warriors to the White House, where Taylor was pulled aside and presented the Purple Heart award  (oldest military award in the US presented to wounded soldiers) by President Obama in person.

Danielle continues to document Taylor’s progress on his website: www.taylormorris.org, where it is evident that life for this couple has not slowed. Activities to date include Taylor biking around the halls of the hospital, running the 5km "Tunnel to Tower" in NYC, jet-skiing in Florida, drifting a friends car in the snow and dancing at a friends' wedding in September. The couple recently enjoyed a much-needed vacation and are finalizing a very important project that will allow Taylor to drive again in an adapted brand new van! They even attended Obama’s inauguration ball together. Danielle made light of the fact that Taylors’ prosthesis slipped and spilt Diet Coke on the carpet outside the oval office.

“We both have off days, but they’re kind of off-set from each other”, says Taylor.

While receiving a Bronze Star (heroic military achievement) with Valor in August of last year, Taylor shed light on his tireless partner:

“If I had hands, I’d take this Bronze Star and pin it on Danielle,” he said in his touching tribute. “It’s been so hard and she’s been here the whole time.”

It is a situation I myself hope I never have to endure, but I don’t pity Taylor or Danielle too much. It seems that Taylor is, in the partner sense, the luckiest man in the world. We search for so long for that person we want to essentially spend our lives with. Some people never stop searching, and some only experience that for a brief moment. When we do find that person, if ever, what would we drive ourselves to do to hang on? Think about it.

My partner is working away where he works long, tough days. Unfortunately I have the time with my thoughts to pine over these things, things most of us can’t even fathom until we are put in that situation ourselves. I dread about receiving a phone call that he’s been injured at work. What would I do – would I block it out, shut down and become distant? Or would I spring to action, full of positive affirmations and tireless spirit? I would like to believe the latter, but who can really say until they experience it themselves. Yes, I’ve been a doting partner when he’s been ill or tired but I cannot know how far my spirit can stretch. Here’s hoping my even thinking about such situations keeps it flexible.

 Taylor’s injuries, while very traumatic and heartbreaking, are just a platform for his unbreakable spirit and positive attitude and of those around him. He has the support of family, friends, his country - the world. Anyone who reads his story is overwhelmed with amazement and inspiration. He has found the ultimate rock-hard foundation in Danielle. Again, he is proof you can really do anything you put your mind to, absolutely, 100%.

My heart warms when I read of people like this in the world. 

Sources:

www.taylormorris.org

www.thechive.com

www.wjla.com

www.dailymail.co.uk
Tim Dodd photography

Katie Piper - "A Tragedy Can be the Making of You"

Happy Holiday’s everyone and cheers to a New Year! Over the years I’ve stopped fussing over resolutions as I believe these should be set and achieved all year long, but there’s also something about a New Year that lets you stop and think about the way you live your life and things you can do to change it.

At many points throughout the year I begin to fixate on my looks and what I wanted changed. ‘I hate my nose’, ‘I want bigger boobs’, ‘My skin makes me look so ugly’. I whine about my stomach, thighs or my hair. Then, around this time last year, I saw this documentary that changed my thinking and seemed to sink in deep.

 The show documented British model Katie Piper, who, in 2008, was the victim of a brutal acid attack.

Katie before the attack. Source: NooNews

Katie, a budding UK TV personality and model, had just ended a volatile relationship with a man she had met on Facebook. Unbeknownst to her, this man had been charged previously with throwing boiling water on a man’s face. When their relationship went sour, Katie’s ex-boyfriend became enraged. In the weeks before the attack, he had taken her to a hotel where he beat and raped her, leaving her terrified for her life. After his pleas of forgiveness were rejected by Katie, he instructed an accomplice to follow Katie to an internet café, where he doused sulphuric acid – some of which she swallowed - on to her face, neck, chest, hands and eye in public on the street outside.  Both men were later arrested and are serving life sentences.

Katie was left blinded in her left eye and surgeons completely removed all skin from her face and replaced it with Matriderm, a skin replacement. A skin graft was then used to cover the Matriderm and this became the first procedure of its’ kind to be done in a single operation. Katie received treatment designed to break down scar tissue and was given a plastic face mask to wear 23 hours of the day, for two years, which flattened her scars; stretching the scar tissue, and helped keep her skin moist.

Katie wearing the plastic face mask she had to wear 23 hours a day

In 2009, Katie chose to waive her anonymity she’d garnered from the sexual assault and decided to show her face and bring awareness to people with burns, scars and/or disfigurement. She documented her daily struggles from the attack itself (which was caught on camera) to the day she decided to emerge outside her home in Katie: My Beautiful Face. The documentary attracted more than 3 million viewers worldwide.

2 years later, Katie had begun her own charity: The Katie Piper Foundation, and debuted a new documentary titled Katie: My Beautiful Friends detailing the struggles of other young people with scars, disfigurements or burns due to accident or injury.

  Catching one episode of this in early 2012, I was immediately moved, particularly with a featured graduate named Emily. Emily had been burned in a house fire as a child, a fire which the rest of her family escaped unscathed. She did not seem to flounder having to grow up with a prominent disfigurement, and Emily went on to finish law school. During the aired episode, Emily begins her search for a job to start her career, and while impressing potential employers with her resume, the possibility of discrimination seems to become apparent when she does not ace the interviews. While watching this, you might be overcome with sympathy for Emily but she doesn’t let the discrimination phase her, eventually accepting an unpaid internship with a local firm. What struck me hardest was when she read a magazine where a celebrity proclaimed “it’s hard to be beautiful”. “Would she rather look like me? Would that make it easier?” she scoffed. Suddenly everything about my face, body, or hair that I disliked seemed completely insignificant. My scars are small and barely visible, my face is intact, my vision is clear, my limbs are all here. Surely being as intact as I am, I can suck it up –or at least I can according to Emily, and, coming from her you’d best agree.

Emily Savage

Mere months after watching this documentary, I became absorbed in the controversy surrounding Samantha Brink, a writer for the Daily Mail, and her article titled “There are Downsides to Looking This Pretty: Why Women Hate me for Being Beautiful” (no this is not a joke). The intro begins:

“On a recent flight to New York, I was delighted when a stewardess came over and gave me a bottle of champagne.

‘This is from the captain — he wants to welcome you on board and hopes you have a great flight today,’ she explained.

You’re probably thinking ‘what a lovely surprise’. But while it was lovely, it wasn’t a surprise. At least, not for me.”

I found this article appalling and obnoxious. The writer begins to whine about how her female friends and coworkers treat her differently because she is so beautiful. After seeing the struggles of someone like Katie and Emily, people I consider to be truly beautiful people, it makes me worry about the rest of our somewhat superficial society. So much focus is laid on being beautiful, where is the attention for people who are different? Think of a world where indifference was the norm. Acceptance and love and happiness would replace all the garbage about attaining unrealistic standards and skewed views of superficial characters.

Samantha Brink. Source: Daily Mail UK

But I don’t want to take the attention away from Katie Piper and the wonderful light she is shining on helping support others like herself who now have to live their lives in a way most of us cannot even imagine.

  Her foundation gives support to people suffering with burns and/or scars from all over the world and offers information on hair and laser treatments, as well as medical tattooing – which Katie gives as a gift to Emily in the featured episode.

Katie in 2011. Credit: Ray Burmeston. 

In early 2012, Katie’s sight in her left eye was restored following a successful stem-cell surgery. Her positive outlook assures her she is winning.

 “I always try to look at what could have been and how it could have been worse.

“I could be in a wheelchair, could be in a coma, could have brain damage. So I’m actually really lucky.”

 “Everything is falling into place. The charity is going well, I’m doing work that I love, I’m living on my own and I’ve got a new boyfriend. I’m really, really happy.”

Please visit the Katie Piper Foundation website here: http://www.katiepiperfoundation.org.uk/

You can Google Samantha Brink’s article, of course she had received lots of backlash from people all over the world and has since apologized for how her article was interpreted. I’d rather not bring attention to her.

Sources:

http://www.katiepiperfoundation.org.uk/

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4563702/Katie-Piper-on-acid-attack-and-finding-love.html (The Sun UK)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2096767/Katie-Piper-Acid-attack-survivor-eye-sight-restored-stem-cell-surgery.html (The Daily Mail UK)