In a story you’ll be reading about in every “939, 338,032,294 Things That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity” list until the end of time (and you won’t mind), 21-year-old Eugene Han and 22-year-old Kirstin Davis, who survived the Aurora movie theater shooting that left 12 dead, got married on Saturday, exactly one-year after f*ck you, James Holmes. Why that date? “That way,” said Davis, “we can make good memories and start a new chapter of our lives rather than allowing this memory from a year ago to stick with us every single year.”
The childhood friends who met in church in the fourth grade started dating three years ago. On the night of the shooting, the couple and three friends decided to go to the midnight showing of the new Batman movie.
When they got to the theater, it was packed. The only place they could find five seats together was in the second row, close to the emergency exit that accused shooter James Holmes would soon enter through.
…
Within moments, Han saw the person throw something into the crowd. He would later find out that it was a gas canister…Han said he pushed Davis under the chairs and put himself between her and the shooter, who was spraying bullets into the crowd. Han got shot in the hip. His reflex was to lift his leg and then he got shot in the knee. He “saw pieces of flesh fly.”
…
Nine months after the shooting, Han realized it was time to take the couple’s relationship to the next level.
“We were still dating and I was planning on proposing even before [the shooting] but I never had the chance to,” he said. “When the theater shooting happened, that’s when I was like, I really need to do this because you don’t know what’s going to happen after tomorrow.”
He proposed on April 9 while the couple was visiting South Padre Island in Texas. She said yes and he asked how she felt about getting married on the one-year anniversary of the shooting. Davis told him she had to think about it.
“I was kind of uncomfortable about the idea because I didn’t think it was okay to take a bad day and turn it into a good day, so I had to really think about it,” she said.
She thought about it and came to a conclusion about a half hour later. “I think it would be a good date to have our wedding,” she recalled saying. “That way we can make good memories and start a new chapter of our lives rather than allowing this memory from a year ago to stick with us every single year.” (Via)
I really, really hope their first dance was to “Batdance.” That’d be the ultimate f*ck you to Holmes.