LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — His tattoo is new: FAITH HOPE LOVE.

It wraps like a band around his right forearm. He got it a month
after her accident. He will show it to her if she wakes up.

She probably will laugh.

Maybe she’ll tease him for playing her favorite song again and
again in the hospital room. Maybe she’ll tell him she’s grown sick
of “Your Hands.” He played it about 1,200 times in the first weeks
after her car accident, according to his iTunes play count.

Maybe she’ll thank him for staying by her side and whispering again
and again in her ear that he loves her.

This is for sure: If she wakes up, they’ll set a new wedding
date.

Thomas Anderson, 20, was supposed to marry Savana Riley, 20, in a
field near her hometown of Milford. But Savana suffered a traumatic
brain injury in a head-on collision in February.

The accident happened just north of 84th and O streets. It was
morning. Thomas was driving to his classes when he got the call on
his cell.

“I freaked out,” Thomas says. “I started screaming. I couldn’t
talk.”

Witnesses told police they saw Savana slump over and then saw her
car cross the center line. She probably had a seizure, he says,
because she’s had them before.

The doctors didn’t think she’d last six hours.

Instead of getting married, she’ll probably be at Madonna
Rehabilitation Hospital, if they haven’t moved her to a nursing
home. He’ll probably spend a lot of time with her that day. He’ll
probably kiss her forehead as he always does, her nose, her cheeks
and her hands.

He tries to stay away from her lips, because he doesn’t want her to
get sick.

“She’s the most committed person I’ve ever met,” he says. “She’s
committed to God, committed to me. She always wanted to be
together. She loved me so much.”

He smiles.

“She never got sick of me.”

He’ll probably stand and pray on the spot where they were to say
their vows.

“I think I’ll want to be alone for a while.”

The theme for their wedding was to be outdoors — green and brown,
casual, with candles hanging from the trees. Friends in a quartet
were going to sing old-time gospel music, because Savana loves it
so.

She has a wedding dress. He hasn’t seen it.

He hopes he sees it someday.

He remembers the first time he saw her. He was the new kid in
school in Milford. He’d just moved to this area from North Bend. He
turned around in chemistry and there she was, watching him with
beautiful eyes. She wore braces. She smiled.

She brought him to her church youth group at Christ’s Place Church
in Lincoln, and that helped bring him to God.

She used to wonder aloud a lot why people just didn’t trust God, no
matter what.

He thinks about the lyrics to her favorite song, and finds it
interesting that even though she was always so upbeat — she
reminded him of a sweet girl straight out of the ‘50s — the lyrics
are kind of sad.

… I have unanswered prayers

I have trouble I wish wasn’t there

And I have asked a thousand ways

That you would take my pain away. …

The lyrics seem to fit now.

They fell in love on a mission trip to Scotland. He drew her name
in the dew on a park bench: Thomas (heart) Savana

Then she smiled and wrote:

You, too.

He asked her out for the first time on the plane ride home, over
the ocean. He proposed on New Year’s Eve at midnight. She said
yes.

But he proposed again. One day they went to a shopping center on O
Street. While she looked for a new phone at the Alltel store, he
slipped away to a jewelry store. Back at Alltel, he got down on one
knee and put a diamond ring on her hand.

Get up! Get up!

She was so embarrassed, but happy. He saw tears.

Maybe, if she wakes up, she will cry again for people who don’t
know God. She used to do this. Thomas knows, because he read it in
her journal. She wrote about crying for the broken people of the
world, for people who don’t have faith, hope and love. She wrote
about crying for all the children who don’t have enough food or
shelter or love.

Thomas is studying at the Nebraska Christian College in Papillion.
He wants be a minister. Savana was studying at Southeast Community
College. She loves kids. She wants to work with kids. After
graduation, they want to do missionary work in Africa for a few
years, and then have kids of their own.

If they have two boys, they will adopt a girl.

If they have two girls, they will adopt a boy.

She’s from a large family, the beloved baby. Thomas says Savana’s
mom, Linda, practically lives at Madonna. It’s clear, he says,
where Savana gets her commitment.

A brother-in-law updates a blog about Savana. Recently, according
to the blog, her trach was removed. Another day, according to the
blog, the therapists were excited because she was able to push a
big button with her foot — once for yes and twice for no.

THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010

… The nursing homes that have been contacted will not take
Savana. Continue to pray that she would respond enough that she can
stay at Madonna. God is good. Please continue praying and
believing. …

According to CaringBridge.org, there have been more than 188,360
visits to Savana’s site. Thomas and her family have heard from many
people who’ve been touched by her example of faith, hope and
love.

Sometimes Thomas feels she knows he’s there. Sometimes she turns
her head when he walks in and says hi.

He’s keeping that diamond ring, for now. He dreams of her. The
dreams are about separation and loss, but she talks to him in the
dreams.

“She says, ‘I’m not going to lose you. I’m going to be
fine.’”

Maybe all the prayers from the people who love Savana will be
answered, and she’ll wake up and they’ll have their wedding day in
that field, green and brown, candles on the trees, music in the
air, wedding bands on their hands.

He’s sure they’ll be together forever. But maybe not on this
earth.

FAITH HOPE LOVE.

He looks down at the new tattoo.

“I know she’d like it.”

___

Information from: Lincoln Journal Star,
http://www.journalstar.com