An intimate photo shows the moment a couple embrace for the first time after a horrific car crash and has melted hearts of thousands of well-wishers online.
Arika Stovall and Hunter Hanks, both 21, from Nashville, Tennessee, survived a crash after Hunter’s truck veered off the road and slammed into a bridge on New Years Day.
The touching picture of the two taken by a friend and posted to Facebook has now been shared over 77,000 times on Facebook.
Arika said in her Facebook post:
“I’m overwhelmed at how little damage was done to Hunter and I in a wreck that should have chopped our bodies in half,” “When we were both lying in our beds in the ER he (Hanks) found a way to come protect my heart and give me a hug.”
A close friend of the couple Savannah Gaines, who snapped the touching moment, told CNN:
“It was unbelievable when they saw each other. “I know them so well, and they love each other so much. They were completely blessed to walk away from that.”
Arika also says that in the dark moments after the life-changing crash she was visited by a “guardian angel” she described as a man bright with a big white beard.
“I jumped out of the car, ran over to Hunters side and just looked at this man,’ she wrote.
“From that moment until Hunter was cut & lifted out of the truck I believe with my whole heart that looking at this man helped me to literally believe in that moment that Hunter was next to me on the road.
“I don’t know if it was a hallucination or me unconsciously dreaming or a glimpse of heaven…but all I knew in that moment was that Hunter was safe with me.
“This man..looking at him for a short moment..helped me not witness Hunter being peeled out of the truck. I believe if I saw that I would have had a heart attack.”