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Standing testimony to the strength of the human spirit and the power of faith and love, Elizabeth Smart tied the knot with her fiancé and boyfriend of one year, Matthew Gilmore, at a private wedding in Hawaii on Saturday afternoon.
Elizabeth Smart made headlines in 2002, when she was kidnapped at the age of 14. Forced from her bedroom at knifepoint, her abductor, Brian David Mitchell, sexually abused her and forced her to wander with him from town to town. What Elizabeth has described as “nine months of hell” ended only when an alert biker who had heard about her case on America’s Most Wanted spotted her at a diner about 18 miles from her home. Brian David Mitchell is now serving life in prison for the kidnapping and assault. A shocked America followed Elizabeth’s story which was covered exhaustively in the U.S. media.
Smart, who now advocates for missing children, has formed the Elizabeth Smart foundation aimed at protecting children from abuse through prevention and education. “My life now is about the future”, she told media close to the end of Mitchell’s trial. “When the trial is over, I don’t want to think about it anymore. I feel like I’m turning a new page in my life”.
Living her future, Elizabeth Smart will now take an extended honeymoon with Matthew Gilmour at an undisclosed location. The 24-year-old Smart, a senior at Brigham Young University, met Gilmour, of Aberdeen, Scotland, while doing Mormon missionary work in Paris. The couple planned to get married in the summer but changed wedding plans due to increasing media attention. The “unscheduled” ceremony was attended by a small group of family members.
“She is positively radiant. And Matthew couldn’t be happier” spokesman for Ms Smart, Chris Thomas said, describing the couple as “beaming” as they left the ceremony on their way to a reception and luau. He added “Elizabeth’s desire was for what most women want — to celebrate her nuptials in a private wedding with family and close friends”. “Her wedding further demonstrates it is possible to rise above challenging circumstances to lead a happy and productive life,” Thomas said.
Calling the ceremony a “kind of a spur of a moment thing”, her father, Ed Smart, told media, “We’re just thrilled that she’s married”.
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Elizabeth Smart will continue her child advocacy work once she returns from her honeymoon.
