Yoly survivor ties knot

YES. This word was repeated three times by 31-year-old Canadian Houssam Hammoudi when asked by the Imam, a Muslim priest, if he was accepting his Filipina fiancée Mary Grace Acojedo, 22, to be his wife until the day of judgment.

The two were wed in a simple Islamic ceremony inside one of the rooms of a private hospital in Cebu City, more than a week after Hammoudi rescued Acojedo, who was severely injured when supertyphoon Yolanda devastated her village in Ormoc City in Leyte province; and literally carried her in his arms to safely bring her to a hospital here.

Dressed in a white-knitted blouse, Acojedo – unable to walk, her left arm in a sling, and stitches crisscrossing her face – sat on the hospital bed as the Imam read the ceremonial rites. Hammoudi wore a white shirt bearing the print, “Bangon Ormoc” and khaki short pants during the ceremony.

They were joined by Acojedo’s mother, Grace; her older brother, Nathaniel; her youngest sister, Merry Christelle; and the bride’s six-year-old son, John Allen.

Their loved ones observed the ceremony in silence.

Unlike other brides who had time to get a wedding gown and had their faces made up, Mary Grace simply changed to a white-knitted blouse bought by her mother Grace. Grace also bought the “Bangon Ormoc” white shirt for Houssam, which he gladly wore during the wedding rites./Inquirer