Our Story
How We Met
This is Fisher’s story of how we met: Eric and I met through mutual friends. I had been invited to a housewarming party with a mutual friend and I saw Eric there. We had hit it off really well. We had been friends for about 2 years before he finally decided to ask me to be is boyfriend.
The day that he asked me I had asked him after I got out of my EMT class early if he wanted to go and take a spontaneous trip to San Marcus to the Outlet Malls. Eric of course said yes and we took his mom with us. Keep in mind this happened 2 days before I took my EMT-Basic National Registry Certification test (This is important for later). So we went to the mall and had a great time. We then went to topgolf where I almost knocked a chick out with the golf club on my first swing. The golf club slipped out of my hands and flew to my left 3 lanes down and hit the ceiling. For those that don’t know I played baseball for over 10 years, I have never touched a golf club and I was trying to hit it like a baseball. When I tell you my face was as red as a tomato, I mean you could hold a tomato to my face and it would blend in with my face. Well anywho, after topgolf we ate at Big Lou’s pizza and then made the drive home. Here’s where those that are prone to getting sick from hearing gory things should probably skip this next paragraph. Also this is not a HIPPA violation as I was acting under the Good Samaritan Law and not yet an EMT-B or a Paramedic.
So we are driving south on I-37 in Corpus when I had noticed that there was a car on the other side of the rightmost barrier and with its hazards on. As we drove closer I noticed that there were tire marks in the grass where the car swerved off. Granted I could only see so much with the light provided by our own car. I asked Eric to slow down a little bit and as we passed by I noticed a reflective piece of shirt handing a few inches above the barrier. I told Eric to pull over and reverse because there is someone there and I didn’t hear any sirens. Eric pulls over and is reversing to where the car is and I jumped out of the car and noticed that there was someone there. I told his mom to call 911 and asked Eric to grab me gloves from my bag for the both of us. Eric’s mom couldn’t find her phone so Eric called 911 and here’s where I “blacked out” from the adrenaline. I dont exactly remember what I said or if I was talking but according to Eric I went into default mode and began performing my trauma assessment per my training and was verbalizing everything I was doing. I still cannot remember ever talking. But anywho, the car had major damage to the front and driver side of the vehicle and was pinned against the barrier. I had found the person hunched over in between the barrier and started my XABCDE (for those that dont know Exsanguination or Morton bleeding, A-Airway, B-Breathing, C-Circulation, D-Disability and E-Exposure) while considering C-Spine. Keep in mind I am full on verbalizing this to Eric as I am performing my assessment and he’s informing the 911 dispatcher what was going on. So this person was pulseless and not breathing. I had lifted this person who weighed 250lbs minimum over the barrier prior to telling Eric that I have to make an emergent move to assess him, “they got no pulse and isn’t breathing. Im unable to assess his airway or any other active bleeding. I have to make an emergent move, Screw spinal precautions” (this is according to Eric). So I lift this person on top of the barrier and take a little breather because I’m a small human, when another bystander comes to where we are and helps me put him to the floor. The bystander is freaking out and I apparently tell him “I’m almost an EMT, I take my test in 2 days while only performing the basics. So after laying the person on the floor I start a rapid assessment and couldn’t find any noticeable injuries. So I’m about to start CPR when I smell a certain smell that those that work in EMS know all too well if they have smelled it before. It’s a smell you can’t really describe at all but when you smell it you never forget it. It was the smell of brain matter. This person had an open head wound that was not pretty whatsoever. By the time that I realized it police arrived to the scene and asked what needed to be done. I told him the extent of the persons injuries and informed him to tell the incoming Medic unit what’s going on. Sure enough, the medic unit arrived and before I realized it, Eric said “isn’t that Mike?” I looked over and its the medic that I did majority of my clinicals with working overtime. I told him what happened and everything was fine and dandy.
The reason why I include this is because in that time, Eric understood what my calling is and what he is getting into. It showed him that how much of a badass I am😂. I mean how many people can say that this happened and they end up finding someone that they love after this event.
After we both got cleaned up at the house from all the blood that was on me, Eric had asked me if I would carry his heart with me and handed me both of his dog tags from the navy. I asked him what it meant because you know I’m a little tired after the adrenaline finally wore off. He then asked me if I would be his boyfriend and I thought about it for a few seconds because my brain was not processing what just happened, at this time the Adderall in my system was gone, and when it finally processed it, I said yes.
The Proposal
This is Erics proposal Story:
So there were 2 proposals and Fisher had to get food poisoning and ruin the surprise. So here’s how the first proposal went down. Fisher and I were going on one of my reward cruises for my travel agent company for selling over 1 Million Dollars in cruises in a year. This cruise we went from Barcelona to Rome for a 7 day cruise. We flew up early and stayed in Barcelona for a few days and stayed in Rome for a few days after the cruise. Fisher had been wanting to see Italy for years now from what he has told me so I made it happen. Well day 6 of the cruise, Fisher and I were eating breakfast and had Eggs Benedict. They had given me Fishers plate and gave mine to him. I like my eggs over medium and he like his over easy so we swapped plates. Fisher had noticed that there was a funky taste to the Canadian bacon and ate only a few bites and was done with it. I didn’t think anything of it. Well the next day Fisher started to experience stomach cramps. He thought it was his ulcerative colitis flaring up so he pushed on through the day. Well the next day Fisher woke up with fever, chills, body aches, stomach cramping, and really bad diarrhea. I then immediately knew that this proposal was going to go 1 of 2 ways. Either Fisher being Fisher and powering through his sickness and be better by the time it’s time for me to propose or he’s going to be running straight to the restroom as soon as he hits the door and I’m probably not going to be proposing because he’s possibly got food poisoning. So we got in the cab to go to the hotel and Fisher knocks out immediately mind you we have a 2 hour drive to the hotel. So we get to the hotel and drop our bags off and Fisher is looking rough. He’s pale and clammy and just does not look great. So you know what we did, WE TOURED THE 4 MAIN OF ROME IN 4 HOURS AND WALKED 12 MILES IS WHAT WE DID. Fisher was not amused halfway through our own tour of Rome. Fisher had to stop about every 30 minutes to take a breather. I told him that we can take a cab back to the hotel and wait there until our room is ready but he said he was determined to see the main sites of Rome. By the time the room was ready, Fisher looked even worse than what he did. He said that he can make the walk to the hotel once we got the text message that it was ready because the hotel was only a 5 minute walk. Fisher put in an AirPod and made it to the hotel. Fisher was overjoyed at the fact that he made it to the hotel and he could take a much needed nap. That was until we walked inside of the building and saw that there wasn’t an Elevator. Fisher was cursing up a storm walking up 4 flights of stairs with the fact that he had the constant urge to go to the restroom and was extremely lethargic. I kept telling him it would be worth it once we got into the hotel trying no to ruin the surprise. Fisher was struggling to open the door with the key. Fisher was still cursing up a storm until he opened the door and heard our song playing. Fisher immediately swelled up with tears.
So the hotel that we had booked had a romance package. The hotel is typically meant for couples to have a romantic experience. It was a very cheap add on that included a bottle of champagne, and chocolate covered strawberries with a rose petal heart on the bed. On the mirror they had put a quote on the wall and I had the most trouble figuring out what to put. I finally thought of one and had them write “There is no one I’d rather have steal my blanket” with a picture of us attached to the mirror. Fisher had hugged and kissed me and thats when I told him “I was going to propose but I had cancelled the proposal because you were really sick. I had a photographer ready to take the pictures for the proposal but cancelled it while you were asleep.” Fisher could not stop apologizing and I of course reassured him that it wasn’t his fault that he got food poisoning. From that day on Fisher has refused to eat Eggs Benedict.
This is Fisher’s proposal story:
So the day of the proposal I decided to surprise Eric when he came home from his Alaskan Cruise with his Mom. I had everything planned out from the moment that I got out of work to the moment that Eric came home from the airport. As soon as I got out of work, I went to the store to get rose petals and other things for the proposal. As soon as I came home I got to work deep cleaning the house and preparing for our special moment. I then got started on taking apart the rose petals when I get a phone call from Eric. I heard the concerned tone that he had and realized that something had happened.
Eric told me that he won’t be coming home for 2-3 days because they have called an emergency grounding of all flights due to an update issue with the airport traffic control. I kid you not, I was sobbing for a good 2-3 hours because by the time he was coming home I was going to be at work and everything was going to fall apart. I called my Best Man and Woman because everything felt like it wasn’t going as planned. Eric’s mom knew what was going on as I called her while on the cruise to let her know of the plans. I had hung pictures of us from the last 2 years of us together with fishing line in the living room on the ceiling with a candle lit road with rose petals in the center that started at the entry of the door. In the living room, I had made a heart boarder with the candles and individually lit every single one of the candles. I then would have our song played in the background. The photographer (My best Man) would be there to take pictures. Eric’s mom was going to be the videographer from Eric’s backside to video the reaction.
Both of my best people had calmed me down and reassured me that everything will go as planned. Shortly a few hours later after I stopped crying, Eric called me to tell me that they have resolved the issue and he’ll be coming home tonight……….around 4am. As excited as I was, I was not excited to stay up till 4am to propose as I had just gotten off of work that morning after running all night in the ambulance. As tired as I may have been, I was extremely relieved to know that he was coming home that night.
Around 1am, I had called my best man to see if he was still coming to the proposal to take pictures. I was baffled by the response I had received. He had told me that he had texted me that he wasn’t going to make it because he is 3 hours away. I looked at my messages to see if I may have missed something and noticed that I had not received a message since I texted him that Eric was coming home tonight. He then told me that he had the message typed up and forgot to hit send. He profusely apologized. I told him it wasn’t a big deal, I’ll figure something out. And that I did for the most part. I had set my IPad up behind me to record the Proposal.
So I took a small nap and woke up at 3:30 to get everything set up as before I checked to see what their ETA would be and gave myself 30 minutes earlier to set everything up. I had lit over 200 candles single and had gotten the video set up.
When the moment came about of course I’m an emotional wreck after being sleep deprived and dealing with a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the entire day. Sure enough Eric said yes. I would’ve thought he would have been a little bit more surprised than what I initially thought, but he said his suspicions grew because I don’t normally call or message him as much as I normally do when he’s coming home from a trip without me.