MEADVILLE, Pa. (AP) — As friends and family gathered at Frenchtown’s St. Hippolyte Church for last November’s wedding of Samantha and Matthew Foulk, many thought they were witnessing some sort of practical joke. There was the groom, flat-out on his back on the altar, attending his wedding on a stretcher.

Holding on bravely to an unspoken wedding-day commandment, “the wedding must go on,” his young bride carried through on two years of nuptial plans despite her groom having to attend their perfect day unable, except briefly now and then, to stand up.