Paramedic and EMS Supervisor, 31, Robbie Vargas-Cortes was scheduled to be vaccinated on December 23, and she knew her five-year-old boyfriend was one of the vaccine administrators at Sanford Canton-Inwood Medical Center.
“I want it to be a surprise,” Vargas-Cortes told CNN.
Registered nurse Eric Wonderley told CNN he had no idea the proposal was coming. When Vargas-Cortes was putting her sleeve on and her hand was already taped, she thought her boyfriend jokingly indicated where the vaccine should go, “ox’s eye or something.”
But Vargas-Cortes tapped a ring on his arm.
“It just kind of dawned on me and I was like, ‘Absolutely, of course, yes.’ It was a beautiful moment. “
Vanderley then had to vaccinate her new fianc.
And within 10 minutes, Vargas-Cortes, vaccinated and stopped, came out the door answering the ambulance call.
“Congratulations, Eric and Robbie!” Sunford Health stated in a Facebook post with the video of the introduction.
“If you like it you should ring and vaccinate it! Congratulations !!” One user commented on a post.
Vargas-Cortes said he has been in the ring for three years, and is waiting for the right moment to pop up that question. “We are nearing the end of the epidemic. This vaccine is like a new chapter,” he said.
Vanderley volunteered last month to start vaccine administration at Sandford Health.
He lost his former healthy 86-year-old grandfather, Norman Vanderley, to Covid-19 in November.
“He was a wonderful man,” Vanderley said. “Even though we saw Kovid as an employee, it is shocking that a family member eventually died.”
For Vanderley, vaccination became a personal as well as a professional objective. “I want to be part of this end part. I don’t think I can pass this. Once in a lifetime I get a chance to get vaccinated,” he said.
The couple says they will not plan their wedding until after the epidemic. But they seem lucky to have the right to take the big step when they are ready.
“It gives me a new confidence to be okay with who I am. I always say I’m too scared to hold his hand in public, and now that this has happened, it kind of feels silly.”
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