A senior at the University of Texas got engaged to his longtime boyfriend nearly five years after he saved her life in an unusual pool incident.
Alan Mann and Brooklyn Boyer, former high school students and former friends at the time, were dating for just a week until Boyer's life-changing accident in June 2020.
The pair were swimming with their mates when 17-year-old Boyer hit his head at the bottom of the pool and suffered a spinal cord injury. The couple told KCBD.
Mann, 16, who received lifeguarding training, quickly jumped into action and did the right thing until paramedics reached the scene.
“A lot of people say it's like a coincidence or something, but I think it's God,” he told the station.
“The day was tough, but it's truly amazing to look back at all the good things and blessings that came from it, and look back as if God was with us.”
When Boyer, who currently attends Lubbock Christian University using an electric wheelchair, fought through months of rehabilitation, she wondered whether her relationship with Mann would survive.
“I was saying he understood whether he didn't want to continue on the date. Just because I don't know, I wasn't naive to it, no one can do it or don't want to do it, but he won't leave my side,” she told the local station.
At first, Boyer couldn't even raise his arm, but she can now reach the back of the wheels of the car. She still has the goal of walking again one day.
Mann said his current fiancé is “no surprise,” even through her serious injuries and rehabilitation.
He recently popped a question at a late Valentine's Day dinner in late February, but the two have not stopped beams since.
“I'm just gaslighting myself, this hasn't happened. I'm not engaged yet,” she told KCBD about their lead-up to engagement.
“Then he walked me where he wanted me to be, then on one knee, went down, and asked me to be his wife, and I said yes.”
