As part of our mortal experience, our bodies, minds, and relationships may end up looking very different from what we envisioned for ourselves, sometimes painfully so.
This is a reality that Corby and Tess Campbell have each come to terms with. For Corby, things took an unexpected turn when he became paralyzed while doing a backflip in college. Tess’s journey involved recognizing her own limitations and then letting go of the traditional future she had always imagined when she eventually met and fell in love with Corby.
Despite countless prayers for physical healing, Corby remains paralyzed and navigates life in a power chair. But today, both he and Tess are grateful for the unexpected ways their paths have unfolded. The couple shared their story with Morgan Pearson on the All In podcast, explaining how, through the goodness of the Savior’s Atonement, they now see unmet healing as a profound blessing.
Why We Sometimes Aren’t Healed
While dating Corby, Tess says she had a difficult time coming to terms with the prospect of marrying someone in a wheelchair. She grieved activities she wouldn’t be able to do with him in typical ways, like hiking, dancing, and camping. During this period, Tess wondered why the Savior wouldn’t physically heal Corby the way He had others in the New Testament.
She points out that there were probably dozens of people waiting to be healed at the Pool of Bethesda, but the Savior healed only one.
“I think that’s more the ratio we should expect now, too,” she says. “The Savior does not heal people as often as He can. And He does that on purpose. I was more frustrated with that when I was dating Corby, and now I have a different perspective. ... I think we learn more from unmet healing than we do from things going perfectly or how we expect them to.”
Today, she trusts that God has a plan, and that if He needed to heal Corby for His plan to work, He would. As they have navigated Corby’s unmet healing together, Tess has learned to accept God’s will, and it has opened her eyes to so many other blessings.
“The stuff that we’ve been able to do because Corby is not healed has been amazing,” she says. “We would not have written a book, and we would not be on this podcast, and we wouldn’t be able to share as many experiences with people if he hadn’t ever gotten in his accident or if he had been healed.”
Corby is similarly grateful, even sharing that, if he had the opportunity to push a button to go back in time and prevent his accident, he wouldn’t do it.
“I like the person I’ve become and the relationships I’ve developed,” he says. “I would never go back and change all that stuff. I am still also excited to apply these lessons in a fully functional body someday, too. But I definitely wouldn’t go back and stop myself from breaking my neck.”
We All Need Healing
Though Corby’s disability is more visible, Tess experiences limitations of her own, including intense sensory sensitivity. Navigating these struggles alongside Corby has helped her realize that everyone needs healing in their own way.
“Every single person is dealing with something at every single minute of every day,” she says. “Everybody is ‘lame’ in some way, and very few of them are visible. …
“You might [have been] lame one way two years ago, and now you’re lame in a different way today. …. Miscarriages or dealing with a really hard calling that you don’t feel prepared for or infertility or abuse—there are so many ways that are invisible.”
Through their challenges, both visible and invisible, Tess and Corby have experienced the compensatory nature of the Savior’s Atonement. For Corby, this comes in the form of profound, reciprocal connections with the people who support him.
“There are so many relationships with people that I never would’ve connected with [otherwise],” he explains. “When people help put me in bed or get me out of bed, I ask them what they’re grateful for, and I share what I’m grateful for. … You learn so much about people. Being a service opportunity and allowing people to serve me has been such a blessing in my life.”
For Tess, the compensatory power of the Atonement has manifested in tangible ways.
“Corby is an extremely social person, and I am not,” she says. “For me to accommodate his needs, I have to be more social than I want to be. Now, I can recognize my responses to sensory [stimuli] being held back. … It always lasts just long enough to do what I need to do.”
Tess can see how her weaknesses are actually blessings from God—and as she turns to Him, He helps improve them or He compensates for their negative effects. “I recognize that every day now,” Tess says, “and I’m really grateful for that.”
Lastly, Corby and Tess see God’s hand in the details of their relationship. Their complementary qualities are further evidence of divine compensation.
“I think God knew that we were going to end up together,” Tess says, “because He blessed us each with abilities or talents or skills that the other person needed. He knew we were going to be in this position, and He prepared us for it.”
Hear more from Tess and Corby in the full All In episode.
Read Tess and Corby’s story
Tess’s sharp sense of humor and unflinching honesty paired with Corby’s trademark “wheelnote” footnotes make for a story as endearing as it is unpredictable. Tess and Corby’s story redefines what it means to find “the one” and reminds us all that love is about showing up, being seen, and rolling with whatever comes next.
Available at Deseret Book and on the Bookshelf app.
More articles for you:
▶ Share this summary of the endowment video with first-time temple goers
▶ What to do when you aren’t receiving blessings you think you deserve
▶ Does God really send us trials? A comforting truth about adversity
