Shine OnDetermined bride and maid of honour escape fire, survive three-storey fall and make it to wedding
A broken back wasn't going to stop this maid of honour from showing up on her best friend's big day.
Last Monday morning, just days before her wedding, Lenise Ruff's Colorado apartment went up in flames. Ruff, 23, and her roommate (and maid of honour) Marilyn Kruc narrowly escaped the fire by jumping out of the window.
"My apartment burned down, I had to jump out of my third storey building in my apartment complex into rocks," Ruff tells NBC News.
While the bride escaped relatively unharmed — she suffered some second-degree burns on her hands and face, which she calls a "fire facial" — her maid of honour broke two vertebrae and spent the week in the hospital.
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Six days later, the wedding went ahead as planned.
(Fortunately, Ruff's wedding dress was at her mother's house at the time of the fire.)
On Saturday afternoon, with the help of a back brace and a walker, Kruc slowly walked down the aisle at Ruff's wedding.
"It was a beautiful moment to see her there," Ruff tells ABC News. "It's been a moment we had talked about for years, walking in each other's wedding."
"She's in pain, but like I said she's a strong courageous woman and it means the world to us that she's here," Ruff tells KUSA-TV.
Kruc is expected to make a full recovery.
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Instead of getting caught up in the little details — the friends lost almost everything they owned in the fire — Ruff says she's focusing on "the big things."
"You don't want to take anything for granted ever. I've really realized how blessed and fortunate we are that we made it out alive," Ruff tells Fox News.
"Even though it’s been a hard week I know God’s definitely changed it around and it’s been such a blessing for all of us to gather around and have a celebration and get on with our lives," she tells CBS Denver.
Kruc couldn't make it to the reception — but she still gave a speech.
"We rolled with the punches," Ruff says. "My [maid of honour] was able to make it and went to the ceremony. [She] sent a voice message that was played over a microphone for a toast...I don't think there was a dry eye in room."
While Ruff honeymoons with her new husband and Kruc continues to recover from her injuries, friends are helping the best friends recover some of their losses with a fundraising effort on GoFundMe.
