A groom, who once hesitated telling his bride that he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy for fear she’d reject him, broke down into tears when he saw her walk down the aisle.
Justin Boisvert, who was born with the congenital disorder that often affects movement and posture, met his now-wife Sabrina Raposo on a dating app.
The groom told Good Morning America that he’d often turn online to date because he was afraid that women would reject a man who spends most of his days in a wheelchair.
“Back then, I always had that fear of what the person was going to think,” Boisvert admitted. “It scared me because I didn’t know.”
Boisvert said cerebral palsy affects his day-to-day life, making “it a bit harder.”
“I’ve learned how to manage day-to-day tasks in different ways besides the fact that I can’t walk,” he said. “I have learned how to drive … I accept the challenges and try to figure out things in different ways.”
But it was Raposo, 27, who reached out to Boisvert, 30, online first back in the fall of 2007.
“I saw his pictures and I saw that he has really beautiful eyes and a nice smile so I sent him a quick message,” she recalled. “[I wrote], ‘I really think your smile is beautiful … do you want to talk?'”
Boisvert did indeed want to talk and the two began dating by November 2007. Their relationship would eventually evolve into an engagement in November 2013.
And the two finally tied the knot in front of about 150 people on April 20, 2018 inside St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Hamilton, Ontario, where the two live.
When Boisvert watched Raposo walk down the aisle to him, he couldn’t hold back tears.
“I was looking down trying to fix my dress and as soon as I looked up I could see Justin — he was losing it,” the bride recalled, adding that she too broke down.
“My mum, she was kind of like, ‘Calm down! Calm down!’ But I said, ‘Look at him, mum, I can’t!”
Boisvert said he couldn’t help himself from crying since he’d been waiting years to marry his bride.
“It was just so much building up — the waiting anticipation. When I finally saw her and how beautiful she looked, I was trying to hold it in, but I couldn’t.”
After the newlyweds enjoyed a Mexican honeymoon, they’re now looking forward to a life together.
“I’d like to have children one day, but that won’t be for a while,” the groom said.
For now, Boisvert said that after nearly 10 years together, the two hope to “learn and change and grow old together.”
