Hisashi Nishizawa and Mai Nakahara were a pair of typical Japanese lovers. Both of them were introduced by their friends and very quickly, they fell in love with each other. The two were like lovebirds; sharing their meals, fun and went through tough times together. They dated each other for two years.
One day, Nishizawa got down on his knee and proposed Mai.
Mai was so touched with Nishizawa’s romantic proposal that she could not stop shedding tears of joy when she said ‘Yes’ to her lover
They decided to hold their wedding ceremony at ‘Averiru State Guest House’ in Okayama six months later. Everything seemed fine as the couple started to get busy preparing for their wedding until one day, Mai’s words struck Nishizawa’s heart to the core.
They were happily discussing about their wedding details when suddenly Mai looked at Nishizawa with a strange look like she had never seen him before and asked: “Who are you?”
Nishizawa was shocked!
They were about to get married and Mai suddenly said she did not know him!
From then onward, strange occurrences started to happen. Mai’s personality changed. She would often scream hysterically and forgot about her friends and relatives. Nishizawa was very concerned about Mai so he quickly brought her to a physician for a medical examination. However, they could not found anything strange. Eventually, Mai was admitted to Psychiatric ward.
After being admitted into the hospital for 3 days, Mai’s condition started to become worse. Once, her heart stopped beating. After emergency rescue was performed, Mai had to be put on a ventilator to sustain her life. Mai succumbed into a coma and she sometimes had sudden spasms.
Doctors were baffled by Mai’s condition and they said she had entered a vegetative state and might not wake up forever
Soon, only a few weeks left until Nishizawa and Mai’s wedding ceremony and the wedding company called. Everyone advised Nishizawa to cancel the wedding but instead, he postponed the wedding. “I will wait for Mai!” he said. Everyone was touched by Nishizawa’s endless love towards his future wife but it was hard to say when would Mai recover from her illness. She was still in the coma.
As Mai’s condition did not show any progress, her family wanted to employ a caretaker to look after her but Nishizawa decided that it would not be necessary because he wanted to look after Mai personally. Every day, he would get up 2 hours earlier than usual to take care of Mai and speak with her before he went to work. When returned, he would give Mai a message to prevent Mai’s muscle from shrinking.
5 months after Mai was admitted, doctors finally discovered the cause of Mai’s strange sickness. It turned put that she had limbic encephalitis which was caused by her ovarian tumour. When her family and Nishizawa heard the news, they became despaired. The patient might not get all her memories back even after a successful surgery.
Mai remained unconscious after a successful ovarian tumour removal surgery
After a surgery to remove her ovarian tumour, Mai remained unconscious but Nishizawa persisted that he would continue to look after Mai. Upon knowing this, Mai’s mother was touched to have such a loving man looking after his daughter. Her mother choke back tears as she replied: “I thank you for looking after Mai but I do hope that you would give up on Mai and look for another girl.”
Nishizawa replied sadly: “I beg of you, please allow me to continue to stay by Mai’s side. I want to look at her smile again… I want to hear her call my name again… I do not want to give Mai up…”
Perhaps, god was touched by Nishizawa’s constant prayer so he granted Nishizawa’s wish. Mai finally woke up on 529th day after she was admitted into the hospital. However, there was a problem. Mai did not recognise anyone around her. Even the voices of her closest friends or families did not trigger her memories at all.
But Nishizawa was still happy when Mai woke up from the long coma
One day, after three years later of being admitted into the hospital, she suddenly smiled at Nishizawa.
Although the smile was short, it gave Nishizawa hope that Mai would one day get well and remember him
Soon, she started to recover slowly and made amazing progress. Even though Mai could not stand up yet, Nishizawa knew there was hope. After 1000 days of recuperating, Mai was finally discharged from the hospital.
She decided that she wanted to marry Nishizawa who looked after her and cherished their time together
August 2014, Nishizawa and Mai held their formal wedding ceremony. 8 long years had passed since Nishizawa first proposed to Mai.
Mai’s muscles had shrunk and her limbs were weak but she insisted to walk down the aisle with Nishizawa.
Finally, the couple had their wedding!
Nishizawa kissing his bride during their wedding
They were beaming with pride and joy and so as their families and friends
▼ A video of their wedding ceremony
Their story was then turned into a film ‘The 8 Year Engagement’, starred by actor Takeru Satoh and actress Tao Tsuchiya.
▼ Netizens were so touched after their story came into public spotlight and everyone said that this was a ‘miracle wedding’
Currently, Nishizawa and Mai already become parents to their first child and this family of three are living together happily. 8 years of waiting and painful trials did not end their love but in fact, it became even deeper and stronger. Let us wish them a happy and healthy life…
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