Jeff and Angela Hartung recently renewed the vows they made to one another 17 years ago, after a traumatic accident started their love story over from the beginning.
Almost five years ago, Angela Hartung was hit by a car in an intersection in New York City. The resultant traumatic brain injury left her in a coma for nearly a month, and erased 15 years of memories. Among them, those of her husband Jeff.
“I do not remember anything at all. I asked for my two children, I thought they were like 2 and 8 years old. They were 17 and 23 years old,” Hartung said. She thought she was still married to her first husband, having completely forgotten about meeting her second one, let alone deciding to spend the rest of her life with him.
Most relationships would have been understandably shattered by this tragedy. Not this one, however. Instead, Jeff covered their home in pictures of their life together. “I honestly believe that this happened for a reason,” he said. Over the past few years, he has won Angela’s heart all over again. “How many times have we said, ‘I wish I could go back and do something over again?’ I’ve gotten to do that,” Jeff said.
Finally, in the early days of June 2018, surrounded by friends and family who have supported them throughout this monumental struggle, the two pledged their lives to one another in New York’s Central Park. It is a love story for the ages — or perhaps it’s two.