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A drunk driver killed a bride-to-be in a horrific wrong-way crash in Oklahoma just weeks before her wedding — as her fiancé expressed his love in their final moments together.
Katelyn Callahan, 23, and Tristen Cherry, 24, were returning home from the Calf Fry Festival in Stillwater festival with two teenagers when the alleged boozed-up driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 44 in Oklahoma City slammed into the car around 2:30 a.m. on May 2, according to reports.
“I kind of sat up in my seat, and I see headlights,” Cherry, who was riding in the backseat and spent nearly a month in a coma, told KJRH of the heart-wrenching final seconds before tragedy struck.
“I said, ‘Katelyn, I love you.’ And we hit.”
Callahan, who was driving, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The pair, who had been together for three years, were set to tie the knot on May 31 in Bristow.
Cherry, who suffered nearly five dozen facial fractures, a lacerated kidney, lost teeth, had his mouth wired shut and underwent multiple surgeries, received the devastating news just days after waking up from his coma, the outlet reported.
“It’s taken me some time,” said the restaurant manager, who has since been discharged.
“Still do, to understand. But it’s not the easiest thing in the world. I talk to Katelyn every day. The most I can ask for at this point is healing. That’s from head to toe. Healing takes time, and time takes healing. So I’m just letting time go by.”
The accused inebriated culprit, 29-year-old Sergio Ibarra, was arrested and charged with first-degree manslaughter and three counts of driving under the influence, People reported.
Ibarra and his 36-year-old passenger were also hospitalized, along with the teen riders in the mangled car, following the tragic incident.
A heartbroken Cherry spent what was supposed to be his wedding day in the hospital, surrounded by family and members of his bridal party who gathered to honor the sullen occasion.
“I saw Katelyn in her wedding dress in pictures,” Cherry said, KJRH reported.
“She was gorgeous. All my groomsmen came up. Some of her bridesmaids came up. It was her family, my family. It was a great time.”
The couple described their relationship as “the greatest love story this town has ever seen,” according to their wedding website.
Although they went to high schools just 10 minutes apart, Cherry and his nursing student love became “inseparable” after he invited her to be his date his his fraternity’s formal, calling the pairing “God’s plan.”
“The two…still adore the time they first locked eyes and felt the strength they both had for each other, little did they know they’d be getting married in the near future,” the wedding website said.
“The love continues to grow as days go by and forever shall they both live healthy and compassionate, sharing their heart and soul, blood in blood out, undying love.”
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