Juliana Ramos' Mom 'More Sweet Than Bitter' at Wedding of Recovered TBI Patient

It's possible the words of Chris Medina's single What Are Words never rang quite as true as on the night of May 7. 

Medina, more formal than usual in a suit, took the microphone and delivered a special performance for the first dance of a couple who have seen both sides of a Traumatic Brain Injury: suffering and recovery.

The bride endured a TBI, and her (now) husband never left her side. Their story parallels that of Medina and Juliana Ramos, whose wedding plans were interrupted when Ramos suffered a—with .

Janet Barnes, Juliana Ramos' mom, and Don Barnes, her stepdad, looked on as the the couple shared their first dance to the song inspired by Medina and Ramos' love story. The moment tugged at Janet's heartstrings, as Juliana and Medina's wedding was just two months away when Juliana suffered a life-altering TBI. Today, almost two years after the accident, she continues to progress and recover. 

Janet reflected on her experience at the wedding through her blog on the ForJuliana website, and agreed to share the entry, along with video she captured during the performance.

Happy Mother’s Day. This year is like no other and not just because of Juliana’s situation because we were in this situation last mother’s day too. But the weekend away from my kids has been a learning experience of a powerful magnitude. We just spent the last two days in the presence of ... our future. You see, we are in Memphis this weekend at the invitation of a family whose daughter is recovering from a TBI. They wanted to meet us and share stories and give us hope of a promising future. They wanted to encourage us on a journey that they have already traveled and continue to travel in hopes that they could give us a glimmer more than we had before. They wanted us to understand that their daughter has a similar situation of a young girl with a brain injury who had to reclaim her life with her fiancé by her side.

And finally, they wanted Chris to sing What are Words at their daughter’s wedding. And he did it beautifully. As I was recording his performance on my phone I held my hand steady and let the tears fall. Chris held it together until the last few notes when the emotions got the best of him and his voice cracked just a bit. Then with his gift to the couple behind him, his tears fell freely. In watching this young lady become a bride I tried to stay focused on where we will be one day and not where we almost were. That really holds no value anyway, life changed, we move on. It’s clinging to the belief that it will that made this weekend so important to us. As we talked with the family and I felt every word her mom had to say as yet another reluctant expert. As we were emotional and they were apologizing I found myself believing exactly what I told them: this mom is my future, their daughter is Juliana’s and her new husband is Chris’. There is something reassuring about discussing the situation with someone who has been there. You can skip past a lot of explanations and pleasantries and just define the problems. That is where we find our solutions and our belief in a better tomorrow.

We have met many families in a similar situation but this one seems to have elements of emotion that are close to home. We have seen people who recovered and went on to have independent and full lives. And now we have seen one who has managed to take the step that Juli was about to take. It was a pain of sorts that was much more sweet than bitter.