While Fiancé Lies in Coma, Woman Gets Close to His Brother, a Month Later Her Fiancé Wakes Up — Story of the Day

Who or what do we fall in love with? The person in front of us, or the idea of perfect love in our heads? Often we don't know until time tests that love or infatuation, whatever it may be -- or until maturity teaches what love really is.

When Ellie Farmer met Curtis Wright, she was just 22 years old and madly in love with the idea of falling in love. Curtis blew into her life in a whirlwind of romance and roses and swept her off her feet.

He was handsome, successful, and charming. He was perfect, and when he proposed by moonlight under a canopy of red roses with a lone gypsy violinist serenading her, of course, she accepted. She accepted the dream, the fantasy, the man she hardly knew.

Ellie was swept up in the dizzy delights of planning her dream wedding, choosing the venue, the flowers, the dress. Then three weeks before the big day, her world fell apart.

It was 21:00 when her phone rang, It was Curtis' mother, Clara, and she was stammering and crying. "It's Curtis... his car... he's at Mercy Hospital, they don't know if he's going to make it..."

Ellie drove to the hospital in a daze. She ran in and found Clara weeping in the waiting room. "His car, he swerved to avoid a deer... He went off the road and down a ravine. My boy, my poor boy..." Clara sobbed.

We need to see people for who they really are, not for who we wish them to be.

Ellie put her arms around Clara and hugged her. The two women had never been particularly friendly, but now they were united in their fear for Curtis. They sat together, holding each other's hands while they waited for the doctors.

Three hours later, a surgeon came out, removing his mask. "Mrs. Wright?" he asked. "Your son is now out of surgery. We stopped the bleeding into his brain, but... Only time will tell how Curtis will react."

"Oh!" Clara covered her face with her hands. "He's alive?"

"Yes," the doctor said. "But you must understand, we can't guarantee..."

"We don't need guarantees, do we, Ellie?" Clara asked Ellie. "God will heal Curtis. We have faith!" The doctor looked skeptical, but he nodded and smiled agreeably. Time would tell.

Over the next week, Ellie spent every available moment by Curtis' bedside, taking turns with Clara so he was never alone. The two women read to him, played his favorite music, and reminisced, but Curtis dreamed on.

For Ellie, it was the reversal of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, but this time, it was the Prince who slumbered under an evil spell.

One afternoon, the second week after the accident, Ellie went down to the cafeteria for some coffee. When she came back, she walked into Curtis' room and felt as if she was hallucinating. Curtis was still lying asleep on his bed, but standing over him was...Curtis!

Ellie cried out and her cup fell from her hands. "Curtis?" she gasped. For a brief second, she thought about all those articles she'd read about out-of-body experiences, of people recalling standing over their own unconscious bodies...

Then warm hands were holding hers, and guiding her to the armchair by Curtis' bed. The man standing before her wasn't Curtis, even though the resemblance was striking.

The more she looked at him, the more Ellie noticed the differences. This man was a little older, and his face was marked by the weariness of great suffering. The soul that animated his eyes was vastly different from Curtis'.

"Who are you?" Ellie asked.

"I'm Russel Wright," the man said, and his voice was deep, mature, and slightly husky. Nothing like Curtis'. "I'm Curtis' older brother. You must be Ellie."

"Yes," Ellie replied. "I'm sorry, but you gave me such a fright!"

Russel smiled and looked even less like Curtis. "Sorry about that. I came to offer you and my mother my support," he explained. "One of my old friends called me and told me about Curtis' accident..."

Ellie frowned. "Didn't Clara call you?" she asked, bewildered.

"My mother isn't very fond of me," Russel said. "Curtis was always her favorite, and I was my father's. She never forgave me for that, even though he's been dead fifteen years."

"I'm sorry," Ellie said sympathetically. "Hopefully, this will be an opportunity for the family to reunite, for Curtis' sake."

But when Clara walked in, she didn't seem keen on any kind of rapprochement with her eldest son. "What are you doing here?" she cried. "Hovering like a vulture... What do you want?"

Russel paled, but he answered, "I came to see my brother and to offer you my support. I love Curtis, no matter what you may think of me, I love my brother."

"You don't fool me," Clara snapped. "You've come to gloat! You could never bear it that Curtis was brighter, handsome, and more loved than you! You ALWAYS wanted everything he had!"

Russel was shaking his head sadly. He approached the bed and bent to kiss his unconscious brother tenderly on the forehead and whispered, "I'll be back, buddy. Hang in there!"

From that day on, Russel only came to the hospital when he knew Clara wouldn't be there, which meant that a lot of times he ran into Ellie. The two started going to the cafeteria together for late-night coffee, and Ellie started sharing her fears with Russel.

"Your mom... " Ellie said worriedly. "She believes Curtis is going to be fine, but the doctors have told me outright that even if he wakes up, he might not be...okay. He might never be the man he was."

Russel was silent for a long moment. "It's been two months, Ellie," he said softly. "So the physical injury has healed... We have to hope...But my mother, she will never believe Curtis won't be okay. Never."

Ellie wiped at the tears that started trickling down her cheeks. "I hate seeing him like this," she whispered. "I love him so much, but that's not Curtis! Curtis was always so alive, so funny, and charming..."

"Yes," Russel said sadly. "That is not how Curtis would want to end up." He reached across the table and took Ellie's hand. "If the doctors say he will never wake up, I'll get a court order to switch off the machines, so Curtis can rest."

A sudden scream interrupted them. Clara was standing by their table, her eyes blazing with rage. "You want to kill my son!" she screamed then turned to Ellie. "My son was going to marry you and you are cheating on him?"

Ellie tore her hand out of Russel's and jumped to her feet. "I love Curtis!" she cried. "I would NEVER cheat on him! Russel was comforting me..."

But Clara just sneered. "While you're here holding hands, my son is upstairs alone!" she screamed. Then she turned her back and marched away.

"I'm so sorry," Ellie said to Russel. "I'm afraid I've added to your problems."

Russel was looking at Ellie with a peculiar expression in his eyes. "No, Ellie," he said softly. "You will never add anything but joy to my life." He cupped her face and gently kissed her forehead. "My brother is a lucky man."

He left, and Ellie stood there trembling. What was wrong with her? She love Curtis, didn't she? It must be the stress she was under, the worry. She closed her eyes and summoned Curtis' face into her mind's eye.

But the image that formed had kinder eyes and a sad smile. It wasn't Curtis, it was Russel... Ellie shook herself and hurried upstairs to her fiancé's side. She was just tired, that's all. Tired and confused.

She walked into Curtis' room to find Clara arranging some flowers. Ellie walked over to Curtis and took his hand. "Curtis?" she whispered and prayed that he'd open his eyes and end her confusion.

His hand moved in hers! His fingers tightened around her palm and his eyelids fluttered. "Clara!" Ellie screamed. "Call the doctor, call the doctor now!"

Curtis opened his eyes, looked at her, and his lips moved around the breathing tube. A low murmur that might have been her name came from his lips. "Oh, Curtis!" Ellie cried and was relieved to feel the joy and love welling up in her heart.

She did love Curtis, and he was awake, and everything was going to be alright! A month later, Ellie and Curtis were married in the hospital, and even though it wasn't the wedding Ellie dreamed of, she told herself she'd never been happier.

Curtis still had a long road ahead of him. The brain damage he'd suffered had left his intellect untouched, but it had affected his mobility. He was going to have to learn to walk again, to eat, everything.

A month after the wedding, Ellie and Curtis went home. Curtis was still in his wheelchair, of course, but his physiotherapist was optimistic. "You have a lot of work and a lot of pain ahead," he told Curtis. "But in a year you will be walking!"

For Curtis, every moment of the day was frustrating. He hated his limitations, and he took it all out on Ellie. When she placed a dinner she'd been slaving over in the kitchen for hours on the table, he swept it onto the floor.

"Can't you even cook me something decent?" he screamed.

"But it's your favorite!" Ellie cried. "You always loved it before!"

"I LIED!" Curtis screamed. "I told you what you wanted to hear! I hate the food you make, the music you listen to, and those stupid books you love! I was waiting for you to GROW UP!"

Ellie stood very still. "Is there anything about me you love at all?" she asked quietly.

Curtis ran his gaze over her body and her face. "You're beautiful," he said. "You're the kind of woman a man like me should marry."

Ellie burst into tears and ran out. She sat by the pool and cried for hours. When she went back inside, she heard Curtis talking to someone. "Thanks for the dinner, mom," he said. "Ellie is hopeless..."

"She's worse than you imagine, Curtis," Ellie heard Clara say. "I didn't want to say anything because you're still in recovery, but while you were in a coma...Ellie cheated on you."

"What?" Ellie heard anger and outrage in Curtis' voice, but no pain. "Some doctor? An intern?"

"Worse," Clara said venomously. "She was getting it on with Russel!"

Ellie couldn't stand it anymore. "Stop it, you horrible poisonm0us woman!" she cried. "I NEVER cheated on Curtis, never! Russel was kind and gentle and understanding, that's all!"

Curtis sneered. "Maybe you picked the wrong brother. You seem to have a taste for losers..."

Ellie couldn't stand to see Curtis' face, the arrogant twist of his lips, his disdain. She suddenly realized that the man in front of her was the REAL Curtis. He had always been like this.

His wit had seemed sharp but now she saw that it was also cruel. There was no kindness in him, none. "I made a mistake," she whispered. "Such a mistake..." Elie started to cry and she couldn't stop, no matter how much Curtis yelled or Clara shook her.

Eventually, they called an ambulance, and Ellie was taken to the hospital. For many weeks, she spoke to no one. She kept going over her times with Curtis and noting every little deception, every lie she told herself.

Curtis wasn't the man of her dreams. She'd invented him, and when a wonderful man had come into her life, she didn't recognize him for what he was. Curtis was right. It was time to grow up.

Ellie started to get better, and one day, her therapist asked her if she was ready for a visitor. She agreed and was stunned when Russel walked in. She was sure it was Russel. Curtis' eyes had never held so much love!

Then he was holding her and telling her he loved her and that everything would be alright. And it was. Ellie still needed a lot of rest to get over her breakdown, but with Russel's love and support, she pulled through.

Ellie divorced Curtis and happily married his brother. A lot of people were shocked, and there was a lot of gossip over the whole affair, but Ellie didn't care. She knew she finally had the right man by her side.

What can we learn from this story?

• We need to see people for who they really are, not for who we wish them to be. Ellie fell in love with a fantasy, never realizing that Curtis was anything but Prince Charming.
• Sometimes our hearts can see more clearly than our eyes. Ellie was horrified to find herself attracted to Russel, especially when she discovered he was kind and loving -- everything Curtis wasn't.

Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.

If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a man who was shocked and hurt when his wife of thirty years asked for a divorce when he felt he had always been a faithful husband and had done nothing to deserve it.

This account is inspired by our reader's story but written by a professional writer. All names have been changed to protect identities and ensure privacy. Share your story with us, maybe it will change someone's life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.