If everything had worked as it was supposed to, Chelsea would right now be in Kalispell, Montana, riding off into the sunset with Justin Timberlake or some other Montana-based celebrity. Good thing life rarely works according to plan. After Chelsea finished grad school in 2021, she intended to work as a travel nurse. She could see where she wanted to stay and set up her acupuncture practice, envisioning a small mountain town full of bears, chipmunks, and hairy men. She had no interest in living in a city, so she took a job in Kalispell, set up an apartment there—and then watched the contract get canceled. As she was shaking her fist at the sky, the phone rang. It was Evergreen Surgical Center with an offer for a contract. Chelsea signed and said, “Yes. Yes I will travel to this land of Kirk and pursue my destiny.” JK. She said, “Jobs are good. I’ll take it.” A few months into the assignment, Chelsea realized John Brockenbrough, a well liked and respected ENT surgeon, was pretending he had no idea who she was. She struck up a conversation with him so that he could give up the burden of pretending, and so they could finally talk about how much they both preferred being outside to inside. After they’d chatted daily for a while, they took the big plunge and friended each other on Facebook. Things got more serious a couple months later, and they decided they could exchange phone numbers, which is pretty much third base these days. John finally mustered the courage to ask Chelsea out, and after consulting with her friends over whether this was a good idea, she finally said yes. A good thing too. That first date was a good idea. A very good idea. It never ended.

Chelsea traveled to Nepal in the winter of 2022. When she returned home in 2023, John was suffering a serious knee injury that eventually required three surgeries and eight weeks of IV antibiotics. Chelsea, who is used to gross things, helped him through every step of the healing process. In late spring, as John was slowly improving and reflecting on his traumatic ordeal, he felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude, appreciation, love for his family, friends, for Chelsea and for life. He knew it was the right moment to propose and so he did, in a very special, heartfelt moment at home with their two dogs and many houseplants as witnesses. (He got down on the other knee, just to be safe.) ( Thank you Martha Brockenbrough, a renowned author and sister of John, for her hilarious depiction of how Chelsea and John met and their proposal.)