Writer: Lisa Rossi
Photos: Sydney Lauber and Katie Barth
On Aug. 5, 2021, Mackenzie Doud went to what she thought was a normal family get-together at the home of her boyfriend’s aunt and uncle. There was barbecue, swimming and zip lining.
Doud was 28 at the time and excited to zip line. She climbed up to the platform within 10 minutes of her arrival.
Then she swung a little too hard. And her life changed forever.
She let go and fell 15 feet, landing on the ground on her back. She had a concussion and a fracture to her vertebrae. Doctors doubted she’d ever walk again.
The next day, her boyfriend, Jordan Doud, was by her side at the hospital bed. “He was right there, told me he wasn’t going anywhere,” she said. “That was the moment I knew I was going to marry him.”
Soon after that, she had another revelation: “I swear on my life,” she said, “I will walk down the aisle to Jordan one day.”
DOUD CALLS HERSELF “selectively stubborn.” “With some things, I’m easygoing, but if it’s something I’m determined to accomplish or something I want, really nothing is going to get in my way of doing it or making it happen,” she said.
She also believes in the power of prayer. “After everything I’ve gone through the past two years,” she said, “I can’t imagine not believing in the power of prayer.”
Even so, progress on the promise she made to walk down the aisle was incremental at best, rocky at worst. And despite her grit, there were no guarantees.
She recalled getting out of the hospital and being in acute rehab for four weeks. “I would work with my occupational therapist there, and I would shower and go back to my room and get dressed for the day, and I would get so frustrated,” she said. “I would be in tears because just shifting the weight and positioning myself and lifting my legs up to get pants or shorts on — it took forever. I just wasn’t comfortable with how to move my body. I hadn’t found my niche yet.” Rehab started with work on her core strength, and she practiced standing. She worked on her balance. Whenever her blood pressure fluctuated from sitting to standing, she worked on regulating that, too. She practiced walking, first with bars to lean on, then a walk, then with new leg braces. “That was definitely a turning point in my recovery,” she said. “That’s when things really took off.”
Doud’s friend Channing Owens said Doud experienced lots of ups and downs.
One up: The first time Doud walked without a harness at therapy. “I got to witness it,” Owens said. “There were a lot of tears.”
The downs: Sometimes she felt like “her legs didn’t want to work that day,” Owens recalled. “I said, ‘God only gives the hardest battles to the strongest people, and you are one of the those warriors.’”
Doud remembers a key moment when she walked in her home. “I stood up, walked from my living room to the kitchen and back, and sat back down by myself,” she said. “I cried as soon as I sat down. It felt like I’d climbed a mountain.”
THERE WAS ANOTHER mountain to climb — the big one — when she walked down the aisle to her husband, Jordan Doud.
During her early physical therapy sessions at On With Life, a rehabilitation center in Ankeny, she used a wheelchair and scooted behind a walker. She stood up. She took a step. She leaned over, breathing deeply. She worked her way down the hallway, 10 to 15 feet. Her therapist, Jade Thomas, encouraged her: “That was solid, that was great.”
They timed the walks, aiming for the 3 1/2-minute duration of the wedding processional, “Born to Love You,” by LANCO. Doud set her sights on an orange cone at the end of the hall. “I’m staring that cone down,” she said. “I’m coming for you.”
Thomas played the song on her phone and let the lyrics ring out: “We’re going to be the greatest love story this town has ever seen.”
Doud’s arms shook. She took a deep breath with each step. She reached the cone before the song ended. Success.
“We’re just doing the extra work to keep up your endurance,” Thomas said.
Doud practiced standing for four minutes. She reached her right hand forward, getting ready to put the ring on her fiance’s finger, but she couldn’t lift her left hand.
“I’m planning to stand the whole ceremony,” she said. “I’m not going to dwell on the fact I couldn’t get my left hand up. I feel really good. I think it’s all going to fall into place and I feel fantastic about it. … I can’t believe it’s actually here.”
Even later, Doud got emotional talking about this. “This has been my biggest goal since August of 2021,” she said. “To be able to accomplish that and close this chapter is going to set me up for the next chapter, too, and it’s going to get me off to a good start and keep me going on the momentum and the high.”
At one physical therapy session, two days before the wedding, a tornado warning went off, forcing everyone into the hall. Doud joked about it: “Are you testing me to make sure I want this?”.
THE BIG DAY finally came on Oct. 21, 2023. It was warm but not hot. Chairs lined up outside the Seven Oaks Recreation venue in Boone.
The ceremony started, but it wasn’t your typical ceremony with guests sitting quietly. Oh no, they whooped and hollered when they saw the bride, who initially rolled up in a wheelchair.
“You got this, girl!” someone yelled.
She stood up and the song started playing: “I was born to love you.” The crowd cheered as she started walking. One halting step. Then another. A bridesmaid wiped away tears.
Doud inched forward.
“You got it,” another person yelled. More whoops and applause.
Her arms shook on the walker. Jordan walked up to meet her. She did it.
They shared their vows. These are just small excerpts:
“My thoughts on marriage are what you have created before and after the accident,” the bride said. “You held my hand after the accident and told me you wouldn’t go away.”
“I loved you from day one,” the groom replied. “I promise to do my best to match your determination and drive. I look forward to forever with you. I love you.”
A YEAR LATER, the newlyweds live in Ferguson, a few miles southeast of Marshalltown. Doud, now 31, works as a nurse at Iowa Heart in Ames. The couple shares two dogs, Bandit and Sophie, and a very dog-like cat named Zeus.
They’re planning an addition to their house and making more plans for the future.
“Since the wedding, it’s been a time for reflection,” she said. “It reminds me, it’s OK to slow down.”
Did you just get married, too? Submit your recent wedding photos for print consideration to editors@bpcdm.com.
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