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Photo Of Young Couple After Crash Goes Viral

Posted at 6:22 PM, Jan 07, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-07 20:59:27-05
A photo of a young couple reconnecting after they were involved in a car crash has gone viral.
 
As a graphic design student at Lipscomb University Arika Stovall always hoped her work would get noticed but what happened over the last few days was something she never saw coming.
 
The 21-year-old and her boyfriend Hunter were on their way home from Florida Friday night, when they were involved in a crash. Neither one remembers how it happened.
 
Hunter came to as his pickup truck was seconds away from slamming into a bridge support on I-24 in Murfreesboro.
 
"I don't know how we lived through that," Arika said about the crash that nearly killed her
 
The picture of Hunter's mangled Toyota Tundra provides context to injuries on his face.
 
"I got a good gash across the forehead here," the 21-year-old college baseball player said.
 
However, it was a different moment captured inside Arika's hospital room that social media can't stop sharing.
 
"All I cared about was seeing her and making sure she was ok before me, I didn't care what happened to me as long as she was alright," Hunter recalled about the photo which has now gone viral.
 
A caption not necessary, their looks, their eyes and their neck braces were enough.
 
"Anyone who looks at that photo can tell something happened and both were making sure we were ok," he added.
 
So far, the picture has made it's way around the world. Hunter and Arika didn't understand how it happened but messages they've received from pure strangers help explain why.
 
"We've gotten hundreds of messages just telling us that our story brought them out of a dark place in their life and changed their life," Arika said about the photo.
 
A life changing moment that apparently has changed lives and not just theirs.