June 14 Rewriting the Date: ASHLEY MITRIKOV and CHRIS HOSKINS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMANDA JONES AND LACEY JACKSON (LACEY PHOTOGRAPHY)
Ashley and Chris’ wedding day will forever be one of the happiest events of their lives.
With the couple’s friends and Chris’ family gathered in the banquet room of Panama City Beach’s Runaway Island, Ashley walked down the aisle holding the hands of 7-year-old Maddox and 10-year-old Masen, the sons of one of her best friends. The boys smiled ear-to-ear with their important roles as squires to the bride.
The couple’s devotion to each other was written plain on their faces and when it came time to say their vows, Chris did not even need the piece of paper that he had prepared. His words came straight from the heart, letting Ashley and the world know how he felt about her. By the time they said “I do,” the entire room was awash with happy tears and emotions.
Four years before, on the very same day, June 14, 2015, Ashley’s life changed forever. The beautiful brown-eyed girl who loved to travel, who adored her friends and their kids, and who questioned if she would have kids of her own one day, had decided to go on a last-minute sunset boat ride. But tragedy struck. The boat hit two waves back to back that had Ashley and other passengers flying out of their seats and crashing back down. Ashley hit her seat with such force, it paralyzed her instantly.
Unable to move, she had to be carried off the boat. She would spend the next two years in and out of hospitals, depending completely on help from friends, medication, and going through painful physical therapy. Ashley was told she would never walk again. A letter from her physician stated that she would be permanently paralyzed. But Ashley fought and practiced and slowly learned to walk again. First harnessed from the ceiling, then with a walker, and finally, today she uses just a cane—a pink cane, to be precise.
“There was one particular session,” Ashley remembers. “It took me 45 minutes to put one sock on and I remember sweating and crying so bad and thinking to my therapist, ’Just do it for me.’ But the therapists won’t; they’ll just stand there the entire session. But it all made sense in the end. If they had helped me with something as simple as my socks, I would have never regained my independence and be where I am today. They know what they’re doing.”
Her friends were by her side through it all, spending countless nights, keeping her smiling, encouraging her, and warding off her feelings of loneliness and desperation. Chris, who had always been much-liked by Ashley’s mom, had heard about the accident and was incredulous. He and Ashley had dated 10 years before but hadn’t really stayed in touch over the years. “He always seemed to pop up from time to time,” Ashley remembers. “We would catch up but it never went further than that. We had our own things going on.”
Tragedy struck less than two years later when, after many years of health struggles, Ashley’s mother, Mary, passed away. Ashley immediately contacted Chris and he was in shock. He had always gotten along well with Ashley’s mother, having lived with them during the time he and Ashley were an item. After some hesitation, he had to see Ashley. He wanted to be there for her and attended the beach memorial Ashley had organized for her mother, on Mother’s Day 2017. The two kept in touch this time, and things were familiar but yet different. Life had brought both of them pain and they were now adults, dealing with hardships no one could have anticipated. “I remember Chris saying that we would marry if we ever got back together,” Ashley thinks back and smiles. Less than a year after rekindling their romance, he proposed to her, on the eve of what would have been her mother’s 66th birthday.
Since then, every bad thing that has happened has only brought Ashley and Chris closer. When Hurricane Michael destroyed most houses in their neighborhood in Lynn Haven, miraculously, their house was mostly spared. Ashley is grateful to her employers for securing her job during Michael, but more importantly, during her time in the hospital and therapy. She has worked for BY THE SEA Resorts for the last 13 years, except for the time in treatment. Starting out as a receptionist and gradually taking on more responsibilities, she now works as the company’s revenue analyst.
The couple picked June 14 as their wedding date with the intention that they can now think of it as a day filled with laughter, celebration, committing to each other, working through the bad times, and anticipating the good things in life.
One such good thing happened when Ashley set out to shop for her wedding dress in Atlanta at Bridals by Lori, owned by Lori Allen of “Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta” fame. Ashley found the dress of her dreams, a Bridals by Lori private-label gown with bodice, V-neckline, and dropped waistline featuring both Alencon and Venice laces with tiny seed pearls. The full organza skirt had an underlayer of cashmere organza with an ivory overlay, creating a beautiful soft pink color. The full skirt and cathedral train were enhanced with a wide ivory-colored Venice and Alencon lace hem.
Not only did she meet Lori Allen, but the TV star, who also happens to own a vacation home in Panama City Beach, was so impressed with Ashley that she felt compelled to contribute to her wedding with an accessory that would complement the wedding gown perfectly, an extended cathedral-length Rivini design veil with a wide Alencon lace hem that she gave the bride-to-be as a gift. Lori Allen wrote us in an email, “Ashley was one of my most favorite brides. I loved her because she is proud and asked for no special treatment despite her circumstances. She is a warrior!”
Ashley has that effect on people. Her courage is turning heads. She will always be independent; she will always fight. Today, Ashley still travels; even trips out of the country do not scare her. She has adjusted to a slower pace and is grateful to be on her own two feet again. Life is good, but stark reminders of the tragic events will always be there.
“I refused to let the chair determine who I am or what I was going to do with my life,” Ashley says with resolve. “At first that’s exactly what happens. The chair becomes who you are. You don’t want people to look at you and only see the chair or feel like they have to help you. If I can’t do it on my own, I won’t be able to ever function in the world by myself.” But she does let Chris help her every now and then, and he gives her a hard time when she relies on him too much. “We always tease each other. But all that has happened has made me appreciate what I have. It changed me. It made me extremely grateful, appreciative. There are a lot of people who, when they get paralyzed, do not recover the ability to walk again. And knowing that has made me realize that I have A LOT to be happy for.” At the end of 2019, it has been almost two years since Chris put Ashley’s pink wheelchair in storage up in the attic.
BRIDESMAIDS Denise Clayton, Chantel Blood, Amber Haas
BEST MAN Bob Varano
GROOMSMEN Eric Blood Walter Hayes Jr.
SQUIRES Masen Blood Maddox Blood
RING BEARER Braxton Hoskins
FLOWER GIRL Mila Blood
OFFICIANT Kerra Jones Yasuda [/box]