When a quirky biochemistry professor made Susan and Evan partners during medical school in 2016, he created a new type of bond. Like a true nerd, Evan asked Susan to go the Philadelphia Museum of Art and they had splendid time looking at old paintings, making jokes, and frolicking through Philadelphia (despite the fact that Evan didn’t pay for her museum ticket, an almost unforgivable faux pas). Ever since that fateful day, they made memories together such as miraculously couples matching into Johns Hopkins to be picture doctors, eating momos, bearing witness to the Eagles Super Bowl victory, and almost getting kidnapped in Peru. We are excited to share with you the early days of our journey and the seismic unification of the Dhamala and Fox families.

A few years before meeting Evan, Susan climbed Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah Valley National Park with her mom. Susan reminisced to Evan about how challenging it was (scrambling!), how Evan could never reach the summit, and how it marked another "giant leap for (wo)mankind”. So Evan smiled and nodded, hiding his determination to prove Susan wrong. Years later, he told Susan "today is the day". But then it rained. A month later, he told Susan again “today is the day”. Hours of scrambling and sweating passed, and they finally reached the summit. After Susan ate her lunch, by the cliffs edge with the Sun winking through the clouds and birds gliding through the air, Evan got down on one knee to ask Susan to marry him. Susan replied “...we are still 15 minutes from the summit”, but she also said “yes!" It was a glorious moment of love, 15 minutes from the summit.