First responder Cameron Hill made a surprise marriage proposal during Monday’s Tampa Bay Rays game to Melissa Dohme, the domestic abuse survivor he saved after she was stabbed 32 times by an ex-boyfriend in 2012.
Dohme was set to throw out the game’s first pitch on behalf of the charity
Hands Across the Bay, WFLA-TV reported.
But she didn’t expect the proposal, which came when Hill carried out the ball with the words “Will you marry me?”
written in red ink, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
As she gasped, Hill got down on one knee and opened a little black box. Dohme said yes, marking a new milestone in the couple’s journey, which began in January 2012 when Hill responded to a 911 call to find Dohme drenched in blood.
"You couldn't tell she was blond," Hill said of Dohme’s blood-soaked state, the Times reported.
During the helicopter flight to rescue Dohme, then 20, Hill said he had a “sixth sense” feeling that he would see her again. She spent three weeks in the hospital and flatlined four times.
Dohme said she had a similar feeling about Hill months later when he and another first responder surprised her as she spoke at a local church, the Times said. Hill saw her through the trial of her ex-boyfriend.
"When I look back on that night, I can't think of it as all bad anymore because I met Cameron," she told the newspaper. "He's the one I've been waiting for. My fairy tale."
Dohme’s ex-boyfriend, Robert Lee Burton Jr., was
sentenced to life in prison, the Daily Mail reported.
Dohme’s recovery was remarkable, and she left the hospital without the aid of a cane, traveled to Europe, and continued her education to become a nurse.
Twitter users were touched by the story.
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