Mark and I first crossed paths on April 1, 2020, when we both accepted medical positions in New York City, the pandemic's epicenter. We both have slightly different versions of the story, but this will be the most accurate.

On that day, hundreds of medical providers from all over the country were checking into the Park Central Hotel near Central Park. The process was lengthy due to so many people and having to stop at different checkpoints to show various paperwork items. I was patiently going through the process, and I witnessed this man barrel his way through the organized stations and miraculously found himself at the front of the line I was waiting in. As I watched this unfold, a worker politely explained how the process was working and asked him to get in line to follow suit. This guy seemed shocked and surprised that there was an organized process here, kind of as if he didn't see a single soul as he charged his way into the room. But he graciously followed the instructions and got in the line. As each person was given their respective room the staff told us to meet back in this conference room to receive further instructions the following day.

The next morning, everyone met back and at this point, no one had a hospital assignment, but they told us to check our room door each morning by 5 AM to see if anything had come in. After this meeting, everyone in the lobby area just talked for a while. I tend to be more on the quiet side, especially if I do not know anyone, however, in this situation I knew I needed to try to be more of an extrovert to stay up to speed on what was going on, fearing I might easily miss something. For some reason, I spotted the only two people out of probably a couple hundred wearing scrubs. I assumed that since they were in scrubs, they must know some information about the hospitals or our work assignments that I was not aware of. I slowly approached them to introduce myself. Come to find out, neither of them had a clue as to what was going on and just missed the memo to come to the meeting in street clothes. Then I realized this was the same man cutting the line at check-in the day before --- he introduced himself to me as Mark Muller! Haha

The three of us now, the other guy in scrubs, was Dave, we coordinated a time to go out, on the empty streets of NYC, to find a store so we could get some water and food for our rooms. As an Uber SUV pulled up, we piled in and headed to a Target. We all went our way into the store, bought our items, and while Mark and I waited for Dave to finish, we chatted at the entrance door—just small talk. Once we got back to the hotel in the Uber, Mark got out on his side and I scooted across the seat to exit the same side of the vehicle. He stood at the door of the car and offered his hand to help me out. As we all grabbed our items and went our separate ways to each of our rooms, this gesture from him helping me out of the car caught me by surprise. I couldn't recall a time someone had done that for me, let alone essentially a stranger. I still remember thinking "Wow, what a forgotten etiquette, and I cannot believe he did that for me."

During our six-week assignment, I think we had to initially work 21 straight twelve-hour days before we got one day off. After that, one day off per week, which seemed like a real treat. During this time we formed a friendship, we found ways to still laugh about stuff despite the horrendous things we saw each day working, and we would always check in to make sure the other had food or other needed items each day.

We parted ways back to our respected homes, Mark to Florida and me to Arizona. As time went on, our relationship grew from 2,100 miles apart. With many phone calls, texts, trips back and forth or to other places around the country, and nearly five years later, here we are!