Eric's POV: Here I was recovering from surgery, learning how to walk again (literally), tired, and trying to get rid of those annoying crutches when I saw someone new walk in through the doors of our Kingdom Hall. This someone new automatically caught my eye, was it the curly hair? Or the city attitude? A mix of both. From the jump, we hit off a good friendship with a lot of things in common which escalated into feelings for each other. Although it was a long process in the making, a lot of ups and downs, different obstacles in each others lives, it seems we could never be apart. I realized she was the one, and here I am in 2023 taking one of the biggest steps in my life, getting ready to spend the rest of my life with my favorite person. Samantha's POV: We met in late November of 2018. My parents had made the decision to move congregations at the time and honestly I was not happy about it. We ended up moving to what would be Eric's congregation and that's when I initially met Eric. He was literally just off of bed rest, on crutches, recovering from a torn ACL when we met, completely crippled, but we hit it off really well. At the time I was just starting college and my parents wanted me to graduate and enjoy my youth before pursuing a serious relationship. But Eric and I were always in constant communication and our feelings continuously grew. Finally, after graduating, a pandemic, and many, many personal & familial trials we endured together, Eric proposed on November 5, 2022.

Eric and I spoke about getting engaged for as long as I can remember, but the months leading up to the proposal we talked about it continuously. Ryan initially told me we were going to hang out with some of his bethelite friends and to invite Eric to come with us. I invited him and Eric told me what he always tells me... "we'll see". I was completely oblivious to what was going on & wanted to flake on Ryan because I no longer wanted to leave the house. Like seriously, I was about to leave my house with no makeup on looking a mess because I didn't care. My mom somehow convinced me to get pretty (but I was still convinced it was not happening at this moment). Once I left the house there were a few things I was suspicious about that had my mind running: 1. Ryan made a detour to get boba (my absolute favorite thing in the world), 2. he decided to drive (he never wants to drive), 3. Eric didn't come pick us up and decided to meet us there (he always picks us up for everything), 4. Eric was completely ignoring my calls and facetimes and barely texted me the whole day (also very unlike him), and lastly 5. we were apparently meeting in Long Island City which we never do, we always go out to eat in Brooklyn or Flushing, which was very suspicious. When Ryan parked the car I told him I had to use the restroom because of all that boba I drank but I said that if his friends were waiting for us that I can hold it until we get to the restaurant but Ryan was so adamant about finding me a bathroom that I was like uhhh its not that serious (apparently Eric needed more time to set up). We stopped at two spots and finally found a bathroom. After, Ryan said his friends were waiting at the piers because our reservation wasn't until 6pm. So we went to the piers and that's where I see Eric, looking nervous with a huge smile on his face. It finally hit me that it was happening. At that point I wanted to cry but I did my best to keep it together to not ruin my makeup. At the edge of the boardwalk, he had the cutest little set up. I was so nervous and excited. After he proposed, a random crowd of strangers were cheering us on and our family came out from hiding. We took some pictures and went back to his house where he had a whole engagement party set up that he planned with all of our closest friends! It truly was such a beautiful and thoughtful day.