What started out as an appointment for the Covid-19 vaccine ended in a marriage proposal for two South Dakota health professionals.
Nurse Eric Vander Lee, 26, helps administer Covid-19 vaccines at a state hospital, while her boyfriend for five years, Robbie Vargas-Cortes, 31, works as a paramedic.
When Vargas-Cortes came to Lee’s hospital for his scheduled vaccination appointment on December 23, he had a surprise up his sleeve – literally. When Vargas-Cortes rolled up his shirt so that Lee could give him the vaccine, Lee was shocked to find an engagement ring attached to his boyfriend’s arm.
“It’s been a crazy year and you know it’s been a fun journey to have you in my life,” Vargas-Cortes told Vander Lee in a video of the proposal that has since gone viral.
“I saw the tape and didn’t understand what was going on for about 30 seconds until I finally realized,” Lee told NBC News. “It was probably the happiest moment of my life.”
Lee said he later discovered that Vargas-Cortes had been holding the ring for three years, waiting for the perfect time to ask the big question.
Shortly after the surprise proposal, Lee shared an image of his new engagement ring on Instagram, writing, “As we introduce Covid into the story, I am very excited about the future.”
Lee, who has experience working as a nurse in an intensive care unit, began volunteering to administer Covid-19 vaccines last month at the Sanford Canton-Inwood Medical Center in southeastern South Dakota, near the Iowa border. Amid the death and suffering he witnessed because of the pandemic, he said it was gratifying to help provide patients with a life-saving vaccine.
“Giving this injection is like a sigh of relief,” he said, adding that it is like “giving someone a shield – outfitting him with something that will potentially save him.”
Helping others get vaccinated also helped Lee deal with the loss of his grandfather Norman Vander Lee, who died at age 86 in November after contracting Covid-19.
Lee said that the response to Vargas-Cortes’s viral proposal brought a wave of positive responses, but he noted that there were also some homophobic trolls.
“We live in South Dakota and it is not a typically progressive state,” he lamented.
As the proposal’s video continues to draw attention, Lee said he hopes it will have a positive impact on the South Dakota LGBTQ community.
“That’s my main focus,” said Lee. “I just want people to know that if they don’t have hope, Robbie and I have been through this. We both have no hope of meeting someone and really finding someone to truly love. So, I just want people to know that things can get better. “
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