Chantel Melanson expected to have a good time when she attended the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas.
But she wasn’t expecting to meet the love of her life.
And she definitely didn’t expect that they would both endure one of the worst mass shootings to ever occur in the U.S.
And even more than that, she never thought that they would have to endure yet another tragedy together.
“Our relationship wasn’t easy from the start,” Melanson writes on Instagram.
Melanson, who was from Canada, met her future husband, Austin Monfort of California, 24 hours before the mass shooting occurred.
Melanson’s friend had an extra ticket and she was able to get some time off to fly to Las Vegas for the three-day music festival.
She and her friends decided to hang out at Gilley’s country music bar on night two of the event.
That’s where Monfort approached his wife-to-be on the dance floor.
“It just felt like we knew each other forever. We went to grab a bite after the bar and exchanged numbers,” Melanson told Metro.
The two hung out at the music festival the next day.
Shooter Stephen Paddock started shooting at the crowd around 10 p.m.
“We thought it was fireworks at the beginning since all big concerts usually have some kind of fireworks, however when it wasn’t stopping, everyone dropped to the ground. We were on the ground across from each other so we both were looking at each other,” Melanson said.
“Everyone ran in different directions but Austin stayed with me and we ran together. We ran across the entire festival grounds stopping a few times to get shelter.”
The new couple were on lockdown in the hospital overnight and never left each other’s side.
Monfort became Melanson’s “safe place”. After the ordeal was over, Monfort came to visit her in Canada about six weeks after the incident.
After that, they never spent more than six weeks apart.
Eighteen months after the incident, Monfort proposed.
The couple finally got their K1 Visa in August 2019 so that Melanson could move to California.
They were legally wed in November but planned to have a big wedding ceremony in Las Vegas on May 8.
“We had a courthouse wedding for our visa on 1 November as we had to get legally married within 90 days of me entering the country,” Melanson said.
“We made it very small but I still wanted a few pictures taken because it was still a very important day.”
After enduring an unspeakable tragedy, the coronavirus pandemic is causing complications in their plans.
“I still cannot work or travel outside of the US. Now with everything that is happening with this virus it seems like it could be longer than expected to receive my green card,” Melanson wrote. “On top of everything today we just found out we have to postpone our May 8th wedding.”
Despite these difficulties, they are just happy to be together and not in separate countries during these crazy times.
After all, they’ve been through worse.
“However through it all, we are just so grateful that we both get to be quarantined together and not in different countries!” Melanson said. “Through all the ups and downs I can’t imagine doing this with anyone else. We’ve come out better and stronger every time.”
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
