Central Indiana couple celebrates wedding 2 years after serious accident

ANDERSON, Ind. (WISH) – The sky outside the church in Anderson where Robert and Michelle Tyler were married was as perfect a blue as any sky could be. 

It was the ideal compliment to the beauty that would take place on the inside, when Michelle and Robert would say their ‘I do’s’. 

“Today’s a very special day and a day that we’ve waited a long time for,” said Michelle, “There was a time when I didn’t think this day would happen.” 

Michelle and Robert were destined to be together. 

“We met believe it or not, on a dating site, only lived five minutes from each other and same town, didn’t know each other,” said Michelle. 

It didn’t take long for the girl who grew up around cars to fall for the guy with the white monster truck. 

“He’s Mr. Romantic. He liked to leave messages for me on the sidewalk all the time, sidewalk chalk, always doing Valentine’s Day really big, that’s actually how he proposed,” said Michelle, “Decorated the bathroom and decorated my Jeep and the garage when I left for work as I went down the road there were hearts on the telephone poles, one said ‘I love you’, and one was a smiley face and the very last one said ‘Marry me.’”

She said “Yes.” A fall wedding was set. But then came an early morning phone call on June 29, 2016.  

“It was right before I was walking out the door to go to work and it was his foreman who called me and said had been hit,” said Michelle. 

A woman had swerved to miss a construction truck, hitting Robert, who was working on a project near Lafayette. 

“Immediately started praying, ‘Please God, please, please let him be okay, please let him be okay,’” said Michelle. 

Robert had several broken bones, internal bleeding and a traumatic brain injury. 

“It’s what they call a diffuse axonal brain injury, one of the worst, they see it a lot of that, so they really didn’t have a lot of hope,” said Michelle. 

Robert was in a coma for about seven weeks, transferred to another hospital, then a rehab facility, then came time for a decision. 

“It was either put him in the nursing home or come home. He wasn’t ready to come home and I wasn’t about to put him in a nursing home,” said Michelle. 

They decided on a rehabilitation facility in Michigan. 

“My mom and I, we stayed in a hotel for seven months in Michigan, it was just a couple miles down the road from where he was at,” said Michelle. 

After seven months, Robert made enough progress to come home. 

“We’re home now, it’s up to me to take care of him,” said Michelle. 

Michelle resigned from her nursing job to be with Robert full-time. 

“When you truly love someone, you do what you can to help them,” she said. 

Helping him with therapy at home and taking him to a rehab facility three times a week to help him say some of the most important words of his life: his vows on his wedding day. 

“Where you go, I will go,” he said during the wedding ceremony that took place on April 7. 

Robert and Michelle married in front of family, friends, nurses, therapists, many who had been with them on their journey. 

“Consider it the greatest day ever,” said Michelle, “Just happy that we’re able to share it with so many friends and family.”