Texas Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright says his wife, Sherri, has always been more than just his partner.
"She’s not only my wife, she’s my best friend," Wright says in a newly released video from The American Border Story. "We were never apart. We do better together than we do apart."
The couple is publicly sharing for the first time the story of the 2017 crash that left Sherri permanently paralyzed, describing how a normal morning changed nearly every part of their lives.
Sherri Wright recalled first meeting Jim while working in San Antonio, where her desk happened to sit directly in front of the men’s restroom.
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"Everybody would always talk to me except for Jim," she said in the video.
Jim Wright said he immediately noticed her.
"I remember meeting her there and thinking to myself that’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid my eyes on," he said.
After weeks of small conversations, the two became close friends before eventually marrying in Las Vegas during the National Finals Rodeo.
"It started out as being a friend turning into my best friend and then turning into my wife," Jim Wright said. "It’s just been amazing."
Then came Jan. 9, 2017.
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"It was a normal day," Sherri Wright said.
She had just dropped the couple’s youngest son off at school and was driving home when the crash happened about a mile from their house.
Sherri Wright recalled the moment of impact and waking up trapped inside the wreckage.
"I remember my breath letting go," she said. "I just remember looking up and glass was going in my eyes."
"My son, he was trying as hard as he could to bend the metal to get me out," she added.
Jim Wright said he rushed to the scene before later learning his wife had been paralyzed.
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"And I just told him I didn’t want to live," Sherri Wright said.
"My whole life I worked. I took care of my kids," she said. "It changed everything. Basically took away more than half of my life."
The couple said the crash forced them to adapt to in-home care while Sherri Wright struggled with the loss of independence that came with her injuries.
Sherri Wright also described the emotional toll of feeling invisible in public.
"You know, I go places and they talk to whoever’s beside me rather than talk to me," she said. "Just because my hands and my legs don’t work doesn’t mean that I’m not a person. You deserve the respect that everybody else gets."
After describing the impact the crash had on their family, both Jim and Sherri Wright connected their experience to concerns about illegal immigration and border security.
"Families affected by illegal immigrants passing through this border should never have had to endure this," Sherri Wright said. "We do not not want you here. Just come here legally."
Jim Wright said he believes the broader issue goes beyond a single crash.
"That’s the root of the cause," he said. "Until we can figure out how to get a better grasp on controlling that cartel activity that’s going on in Mexico, I don’t think we’re ever going to be out of the dramatic expense that we’ve had to pay."
Still, the couple said they have focused on moving forward with the support of their family.
"I think there’s so many people out there like me," Sherri Wright said. "I’m just fortunate that I have a family that have all come around me and helped me and we can do things together as a family instead of me sitting in a nursing home."
"You can’t stay in and try to lay blame on everybody else," Jim Wright said. "You’ve got to make the best of that situation and it gets easier over time."
