What a lovely couple!
Healthcare professionals Robbie Vargas-Cortes and Eric Vanderlee recently got engaged. And now, the proposal is receiving praise online. The moment happened when 31-year-old Vargas-Cortes, a paramedic in Canton, South Dakota, got his first COVID-19 vaccine shot on December 23. Funny enough, his boyfriend of five years, Vanderlee, was the registered nurse administering the shot.
As Vargas-Cortes told CNN, Vargas-Cortes knew two things at this point. First, he knew that he could get Vanderlee to be the nurse to inject him. Second, he knew that he wanted to marry Vanderlee. In fact, Vargas-Cortes had the ring for three years and was waiting for the right moment to propose. The coronavirus pandemic then put things in perspective and made him realize it was time.
With that, Vargas-Cortes not only decided to propose but to hide the ring in the perfect place. The paramedic tapped the ring to his upper arm, so his boyfriend would find it before the injection.
“It just kind of dawned on me and I was like, ‘Absolutely, of course, yes.’ It was just an amazing moment after I figured it out,” he said.
But for these two healthcare professionals, duty calls. And it literally did! Just after the proposal, Vanderlee completed the injection. Then a few minutes later, Vargas-Cortes had to leave in response to an ambulance call. Sandford Health then uploaded a recording of the moment on Facebook.
The couple says they will not be planning their wedding until after the pandemic, but they are happy to have so much support in their conservative state of South Dakota.
“It gives me a new confidence to be okay with who we are,” said Vargas-Cortes. “I always say I’m too scared to hold his hand in public, and now that this has happened, that seems kind of silly.”
Source: CNN,
