Just weeks before her wedding, an alleged drunk driver in Oklahoma killed a bride-to-be in a horrifying wrong-way collision, just as her fiancé was saying goodbye to her and declaring his love for her.
Around 2:30 a.m. on May 2, Katelyn Callahan, 23, and Tristen Cherry, 24, were driving home with two teenagers from the Calf Fry Festival in Stillwater when the alleged drunk driver on Interstate 44 in Oklahoma City collided with the vehicle.
Cherry, who was riding in the backseat and was in a coma for almost a month, told of the heartbreaking moments before tragedy struck, “I kind of sat up in my seat, and I see headlights.”
“I said, ‘Katelyn, I love you.’ And we hit.”
At the scene, Callahan, who was operating a vehicle, was declared dead. After three years of dating, the couple planned to get married in Bristow on May 31.
The devastating news was delivered to Cherry just days after he awoke from his coma. Cherry had nearly five dozen facial fractures, a lacerated kidney, lost teeth, had his mouth wired shut, and undergone numerous surgeries, according to the outlet.
The restaurant manager, who was later let go, admitted that it had taken some time.
“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.”
29-year-old Sergio Ibarra, the alleged drunken offender, was taken into custody and charged with three counts of driving under the influence and first-degree manslaughter.
After the terrible event, Ibarra and his 36-year-old passenger were admitted to the hospital, along with the teenage passengers in the wrecked vehicle.
Family and members of his bridal party gathered to commemorate the somber occasion, but a devastated Cherry spent what should have been his wedding day in the hospital.
“I saw Katelyn in her wedding dress in pictures,” Cherry stated.
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“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.”
According to their wedding website, the couple called their relationship “the greatest love story this town has ever seen.”
Cherry and his nursing student love became “inseparable” after he asked her to go on a date to his fraternity’s formal, despite the fact that they attended high school only ten minutes apart. He referred to the relationship as “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,” according to the wedding website.
“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.”
