Far better or worse, with US veteran Taylor Morris

September 22, 2012 7:32 AM

These photos are about Taylor, who lost most of his limbs in Afghanistan, and his girlfriend Danielle. It is a love story, told only in 22 pictures. Background story via Taylor's friend, photographer Tim Dodd.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (24 comments total)

At the second link, start at the bottom to start from the beginning.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:34 AM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Absolutely beautiful. Thank you.
posted by 8-bit floozy at 8:04 AM on September 22, 2012

I'm a bitter, cynical son of a bitch, and that made me get all weepy like an eight-year-old girl with a kitty cat.

Thanks for that.
posted by notsnot at 8:14 AM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

You could take this and make a romance for men. Couch it correctly, you know make it a tale of homecoming and stick the big old romance right in the middle. You'd have entire theatre of grown men crying in the aisles.
posted by Rubbstone at 8:26 AM on September 22, 2012 [7 favorites]

Careful with the wording BB. I kept waiting for his a shot of a Dear John letter.

I'm glad it had a happy ending, but when it got 19 photos down, I was like "man, she really did at least try to stick it out..."
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 8:26 AM on September 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

An inspiring story. It takes a lot of strength for the victims of war to rebuild their lives.
posted by Jehan at 8:45 AM on September 22, 2012

Its a very unlucky man who has to lose that much to find out how much he really had. Good on them both.
posted by allkindsoftime at 8:53 AM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

What an amazing couple.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:02 AM on September 22, 2012

I wonder if we'll ever see a version of this with the severely disfigured half of the couple being a hetero woman.
posted by cairdeas at 9:37 AM on September 22, 2012 [17 favorites]

If you click through to the 50 Most Romantic Photos post, you will have your answer. And the situation is even more devastating, relatively.
posted by Brocktoon at 9:46 AM on September 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

My second favorite part of this is that in his wedding party shot, you can't tell that he's any different from the rest of the guys.

My favorite part is his now-wife carrying him upstairs piggyback.
posted by maryr at 9:47 AM on September 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

What I didn't realize from the photo essay itself is all took place since May, when he stepped on the IED. Four months, and all this.

So strange to think that, in all these short summer days which slipped past me in a blink, this transformation happened to someone else.
posted by bicyclefish at 9:54 AM on September 22, 2012 [10 favorites]

If you click through to the 50 Most Romantic Photos post, you will have your answer. And the situation is even more devastating, relatively.

Even further down, my god:

You are just in another place, and not in such a deep grief as I am. There is no limit and end to my sorrows that I write roughly. Please look closely at this letter and come to me in my dreams and show yourself in detail and tell me. I believe I can see you in my dreams. Come to me secretly and show yourself. There is no limit to what I want to say and I stop here.

From a letter written by a pregnant widow in the 16th century, left in her late husband's coffin, along with sandals woven from her hair.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:16 AM on September 22, 2012 [7 favorites]

If you click through to the 50 Most Romantic Photos

not recommended for anyone who needs to be anywhere in the next hour without puffy eyes and snotty nose.

taylor looks like he has a good sense of humor when he smiles.
posted by twist my arm at 10:28 AM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

cairdeas: I wonder if we'll ever see a version of this with the severely disfigured half of the couple being a hetero woman.

What could this possibly mean? Do you really believe that there has never been a man who loves a woman enough to stand by her through disfiguring injuries? No, you can't believe that. Do you mean we just never hear about it when it happens?
posted by ericost at 11:22 AM on September 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

Some things never fade.
posted by phaedon at 11:24 AM on September 22, 2012

cairdeas, If you find men in need of some kind of redemption this story may help.
posted by rcdc at 11:28 AM on September 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

> I wonder if we'll ever see a version of this with the severely disfigured half of the couple being a hetero woman

Yes.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:05 PM on September 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

I like my heroes to have fantastic hair.
posted by Catch at 1:49 PM on September 22, 2012 [5 favorites]

cairdeas: I wonder if we'll ever see a version of this with the severely disfigured half of the couple being a hetero woman.

Bravery and love and devotion are not limited to just one gender. For every man or woman who leaves their partner for a non-disfigured one (or simply for someone younger or prettier or richer), there are dozens and dozens of us who are in it for the long haul. Not every one of us (thank God!) have to deal with as devastating a tragedy as the one facing Taylor Morris and fiancée (now wife), but I would hope that if the situation ever does arise that I will rise to the occasion.

I wouldn't want to be the kind of man who would do anything else.
posted by math at 1:58 PM on September 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Wow, just sobbing after that. How inspirational, what amazing people.

I wonder if we'll ever see a version of this with the severely disfigured half of the couple being a hetero woman

I've been privileged to know three such men. With one couple, the woman was severely disfigured from burns - so much so that I had trouble looking at her when I first met her, I am ashamed to say. Her husband has been a bedrock and the most loving, supportive partner throughout. I lost touch with them when they moved but they were both very inspirational.

I know two other men who stayed with, cared for, and loved severely impaired wives - one whose wife had a stroke at 28, never fully recovering - he has been a loving caregiver for almost 20 years. The other is a man who cared for his wife over 15 years while she died slowly of diabetes, a horrible ordeal of losing one limb at a time.

So yes, there are good and loving men, too. I hope you'll be lucky enough as I've been to know some.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:35 PM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

30 seconds and I started tearing up.
posted by gryftir at 12:06 AM on September 23, 2012

You could take this and make a romance for men. Couch it correctly, you know make it a tale of homecoming and stick the big old romance right in the middle. You'd have entire theatre of grown men crying in the aisles.

Harlequin's Super Romance line of books offers all the disabled war veterans find love romances you could possibly want and then some.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:02 PM on September 23, 2012

Okay, having taken a week to come back to this in case anyone wanted to take the thread in a different direction -

Do you really believe that there has never been a man who loves a woman enough to stand by her through disfiguring injuries?

cairdeas, If you find men in need of some kind of redemption

there are good and loving men, too. I hope you'll be lucky enough as I've been to know some.

No, I was talking about something extremely specific.

We do not see young, unmarried guys in their teens or 20s, being lauded by the internet for making a lifetime commitment of marriage, to a physically disfigured/mutilated woman who they were not already married to.

That is all.

Men are good and loving. Men sacrifice for their romantic partners, spouses, families, and many more and they are celebrated by society for doing that.

I was talking about the particular scenario I described above, which I have now seen a bunch of times passed around online.

Society rewards and lauds men for certain kinds of sacrifices, and rewards and lauds women and girls for others.

Alan and Emilie are in a different situation. It is not the scenario I am describing because Emilie's looks are basically intact and they're boyfriend/girlfriend still, he hasn't made a lifetime commitment of marriage. Alan is still a very wonderful and awesome guy. I am not making any kind of value judgment - I am very simply saying that is not the scenario I am describing. In Stephanie Nielsen's blog, they were already married with children when she was disfigured. He is still there, and she obviously loves him very much, but that is not the same scenario. There are different expectations of him there.

I saw this one photo passed around on the internet of a teenage girl, on her wedding day with her soldier boyfriend who had his face blown off in war. Every comment I read on the photo was about what a wonderful amazing person she must be. She looked grim and frightened in her wedding photo. In later articles about the two of them, it was reported that he also had severe psychological trauma. They divorced after a few months. I wonder if anyone told her, before the marriage, that she would not be a bad person if she didn't go through with it.
posted by cairdeas at 3:08 PM on September 30, 2012