The View From Up Here: Meg Warner and Sara Wade

Meg and Sara are an undeniably cute couple; they have a dog together, they're planning a June wedding, and they even showed up to Encircle on March 27th in matching outfits (unintentional, they swear). You wouldn't know that they have been through more than most in the first two years of their relationship.

Soon after they started dating, Meg fell 60 feet in a rock climbing accident. Sara saved Meg’s life by grabbing and holding onto the rope, but suffered second-degree burns on both hands as a result. This accident left Sara unable to use her hands for a month and Meg unable to walk for a year.

Meg remembers how afraid she was that she would lose everything: that she would never play sports again, that Sara would leave her, that she would lose her close relationships with her family when she came out. But they say that moment and the work they did to get through it together made their relationship so much stronger, to a point that might have taken them years longer to reach otherwise.

“I’ve seen Meg through all four seasons, at her worst and her best. There is no experience I think I could replace that with.”
- Sara

While Meg was in the hospital, Sara was constantly by her side. The accident also forced them to come out to their parents as a couple. At first, it was hard for their families to deal with both their injuries and their coming out all at once. But with time, their families have grown to accept them more and more. About a year after the accident, Meg’s mom called her crying to say how much she loved Sara and the way she calmed Meg down and would do anything for her. She said she couldn’t imagine someone better for her and she was so happy to be gaining another daughter.

That moment proved to Meg and Sara just how much healing had been done in the past year, not only physically but also in their relationships with family.

The couple identified three things that helped them keep going and got them to where they are today.

FOCUS ON FUTURE GOALS.
When things were hard, Meg and Sara wrote bucket lists and would talk about things they could look forward to doing when Meg got better, like going hiking and watching the sunset together. Even when it was almost impossible to imagine something better, they decided to keep moving forward and focus on the positives.

CELEBRATE THE SMALL THINGS.
There were many milestones on Meg and Sara’s journeys to recovery, both big and small. The big moments like Meg walking again were important of course, but their key to staying positive through the difficult times was to celebrate even the milestones that might seem insignificant. “Meg transferred from the wheelchair to the bed on her own; I held a spoon on my own. We celebrated those. We have pictures of me holding a spoon. ... We did do lots of elbow fives,” Sara jokes.

LEAN ON GOOD FRIENDS AND FAMILY.
Meg and Sara knew they could depend on their parents and friends for help. Using others’ strength helped reduce the weight on them. Some of Meg’s bosses at BYU opened their doors to the couple, invited them to come hang out with them, brought them dinner, and offered help and support. Their families grew to include more than their own personal families.

The couple compares their recovery from the accident, as well as the challenges all of us face, to climbing a mountain. It can be difficult and slow going, and sometimes we fall down, but as Meg says:

“That moment when you get to the top and you look back and the view is incredible — that makes it all worth it.”