The kind of stories you love to hear after the horror of that day. Today is the 7th anniversary of the devastating attack on the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. The shooting left 60 dead and nearly 1,000 injured, and the country music community struggling to come to terms with the senseless massacre. To this day we still don't really know why the shooter did what he did from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, but for many who were there that night the wounds - both physical and emotional - will truly never heal. Others, though, were able to find some light in the darkness - including one couple who met at the festival and ended up deciding to spend their lives together. On the Saturday night of the three day festival, Austin Monfort and Chantal Melanson were strangers who just happened to be at the same bar on the Vegas strip. And
according to Chantal, it wasn't exactly love at first sight:
"I wasn’t very nice to him. He wasn’t wearing cowboy boots, and I was in Vegas for like a full-blown country festival, so I definitely gave him heck for wearing Vans." Fortunately, she still gave Austin her number, and the next night she found herself alone at the festival when her friends decided to do some shopping. The two met up to watch headliner Jason Aldean, and decided to try to get as close to the stage as they could. But obviously we all know what happened next. As the gunfire erupted, Chantal Monfort says she didn't really think anything of it at first - but Austin saw blood on the shoulder of a man in front of them and knew something was wrong. The couple - who were basically strangers at that point - dropped to the ground, where Chantal started hyperventilating. And Austin
said he knew that he had to keep her calm and get them to safety:
"She was understandably shocked and crying. I think her freaking out a little bit helped keep me calm. I grabbed her face, and I said, 'You've got to calm down, or else we're not going to get out of here.' And out of nowhere, I kissed her." Probably not what he had in mind for their first kiss, but it's definitely one they'll never forget. They eventually made it out of the festival and ended up in a taxi that dropped them off at a hospital to wait out the chaotic scene. And it was there that they spent the evening getting to know each other and forming what would turn into a romance:
“I grabbed Chantal’s hand. I just tried to pull her out and like run as fast as we could. We ended up going to a hospital in a taxi cab when we sat in the hospital waiting room for like hours and hours and just learning about each other there. That’s what created this strong bond from the beginning and the love really blossomed from there.” Fast forward two years, and Chantal moved from Canada to California to be with him - and in March 2019, the couple got engaged. They were able to get married in 2019 in a courthouse wedding, and had plans for a larger ceremony back in Vegas in 2020, but their celebration was postponed due to COVID. But despite things not going according to plan, the couple welcomed their first child in 2021 and have since added another to their family. The couple named their first daughter Addison Hope - a middle name that Chantal Monfort says they chose to represent all that they had been through:
“Her middle name is part of our story... Live your best life and do what you love to do and enjoy it because you never know what that could be taken away from you.” 
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