We met at St. Vincent’s Medical Center— I was an RN and Louie was an EMT at the time. A patient needed to be transferred from my unit to Yale Children’s Hospital, and Louie’s ambulance team was assigned to come and transfer the patient. Louie walked onto the unit with an N95 mask and a face shield on (yay, Covid), and despite the disguise, I knew I wasn’t going to let him leave the unit without sparking a conversation. After many minutes of trying to get his attention, and his partner finally telling him that the nurse was clearly trying to make eye contact, we had great small talk while waiting for the transfer. A very quick Facebook friend request after his departure from the unit, followed by a Facebook message asking how the rest of my shift had gone, we planned our first date at Mecha Noodle Bar in New Haven.

I spent the 2.5 years before meeting Louie as a Nashville, TN resident. The weekend of 7.14.23 we planned a trip to visit some of my closest Nashville friends and meet their newly welcomed baby girl. I ran a quick itinerary by Louie on Thursday, preparing to fly out the next day, to which he decided that very day at work that he was going to propose at my favorite vineyard on that Sunday. He had an entire proposal, hotel, and almost photographer planned/booked for a Newport, RI weekend in October, but decided he was not waiting that long. After calling friends and family to mention that the October plan was no longer, and he was actually going to get on a knee in 3 days in Tennessee, he snuck the ring on the flight and the vineyard surprise was more perfect than I could have ever imagined.