As she lay disfigured by an accident, he found love
Rasheed Kappan, DH News Services, Bengaluru, Sep 26 2017, 2:47 IST
Man's love for his 'teenage crush' goes viral on Facebook
Jayaprakash and Sunitha with her two kids. Sunitha had endured 27 surgeries after a disfiguring accident.
Thirteen summers back, Jayaprakash had a fleeting glimpse of Sunitha as she walked past his classroom. She was his first crush, a memory he deeply cherished even as they moved apart. Years later, as a horrendous accident disfigured her face, Jayaprakash returned to her, shared her pain and lived through her 27 surgeries. He had found love.
Four years after he married his ‘teenage crush’, Jayaprakash posted their fascinating life story on the “Beyond You” Facebook page. That moving Saturday post has now gone viral, the Bengaluru-based couple’s unwavering bond sparking an avalanche of appreciation from over 1.5 lakh people. It was a rare, collective tribute to a triumph of love and humanism over looks.
Drifting apart from college, the two had lost touch. But in November 2011, Jayaprakash got a call from a mutual friend that Sunitha had had an accident and she was in Coimbatore. His visit to the hospital changed his life. And her’s.
He recalled in his post, “When I went to visit her, 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, he sent her a text: “I am the only person who can take care of you. I love you. Let’s get married.” She called and he proposed again. “She laughed but she didn’t say no. Initially my mother was shocked but my dad backed me, and eventually they both came around,” Jayaprakash recollected.
He was part of all her surgeries from January 2012. “I would watch her giggle as she woke up after them in the ICU.” Two years after those painful yet bonding years, the two tied the knot. Shifting to Bengaluru, they became four with the arrival of Atmia and Atmik. His post was proof how much he valued all that went before.
As Jayaprakash put everything in a capsule, all those who read it on Facebook had tears welling up in their eyes: “Today, I am married to my teenage crush. She became my love. Love isn’t about a face or imposed conditions or 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.”