Yes, kids, in real life sometimes there are happy endings, even when the earlier story at times made you want to cry and you felt fearful about how an earlier chapter would end. Kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart got married in Hawaii — speeding up her planned date to avoid media disruption and is now said to be radiant:
Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at the age of 14 from her bedroom at knife-point and held captive for nine months, was married in Hawaii this afternoon.
The ceremony had been due to take place in the summer, but due to media attention Ms Smart, 24, and her fiancé Matthew Gilmour decided on the ‘spur of the moment’ to bring the wedding forward, according to the bride’s father.
‘She is positively radiant,’ said a spokesman for the Smart family. ‘And Matthew couldn’t be happier.’
The couple, who are both Mormons, married at the LDS Laie Hawaii Temple, but plan to settle in Salt Lake City, Utah.
‘Elizabeth’s desire was for what most women want — to celebrate her nuptials in a private wedding with family and close friends,’ said family spokesman Chris Thomas.
‘After the story broke about her engagement and the media became increasingly invasive, Elizabeth recognized it was going to be impossible to have a traditional wedding devoid of distractions and unusual challenges outside of her control.
‘She decided, about a week ago, the best way to avoid significant distraction was to change her wedding plans and to get married in an unscheduled ceremony outside of Utah.’
Ms Smart’s father Ed, who described the wedding as ‘kind of a spur of the moment thing’, said: ‘We’re just thrilled she’s married.’
The couple will now take an extended honeymoon in a secret location.
And may they live happily ever after….
Photo via The Deseret News is apparently on a Facebook page as well.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.