She’ll wear the same dress at the ceremony one year after tragic accident

RALEIGH, N.C. — A year after she was paralyzed in poolside horseplay at her bachelorette party, Rachelle Friedman knows one thing she would change about her life before the injury.

“I wish we had danced together more because I love dancing so much, and we didn’t do it enough,” she says of her soon-to-be husband. “Looking back, I would have done it every night.”

Friedman will finally make it down the aisle on Friday, marrying the man who has waited with her to exchange vows since the accident. She is wearing the same gown she chose for the first ceremony but with her father pushing her wheelchair down the aisle instead of walking her down it, arm in arm. Continue Reading »

Jenni Taylor, 24, of Minnetonka, is the reigning Ms. Wheelchair Minnesota. A quadriplegic after a car accident, she speaks to kids with a message of not being afraid of people in wheelchairs.

Jenni Taylor isn’t supposed to be able to sit up without support, but there she is, exquisitely balanced on the edge of her bed.

She isn’t supposed to be able to breathe without her ventilator either, but a slip of her breathing tube once forced her to try contracting her throat muscles just enough to bring in some air until someone heard the alarm.

She isn’t supposed to be a quadriplegic, either. Who is? But accidents happen. Continue Reading »