Cameron, 40, bowled over his lady love by popping the question as she prepared to toss the first pitch in the Tampa Bay Rays game in Florida on Monday.
Melissa, 23, was completely taken by surprise as her boyfriend ran out to present her with a baseball. On it, he’d written in red “Will you marry me?” To which she of course responded yes!
But for Cameron and Melissa their love story was a bright light found in the darkest place.
In January 2012 paramedic Cameron responded to a horrific 911 call for Melissa, who was brutally stabbed 32 times in the face and neck by her former boyfriend Robert Lee Burton Jr.
In a miraculous tale of unquestionable strength, resilience and courage, Melissa survived.
Cameron recounted the moment he responded to the scene and saw Melissa drenched in blood with stab wounds to her hands, arms, face and head. He described it as “the most gruesome he had seen in his 17-year career”.
Surprise! The romantic proposal happened in the middle of the first pitch in the Tampa Bay Rays game in Florida on Monday.
He couldn’t see her face or tell that she was blonde because of all the blood but Cameron felt a connection to this girl and in his heart, he knew he’d see her again.
Melissa had a long road to recovery, where she stayed in hospital for three weeks flat-lined four times, received 12 units of blood and suffered a stroke that affected her balance.
In the face of incredible adversity, she survived.
Doctors questioned if she would speak, smile or walk again after a severed nerve partially paralysed the left side of her face. Melissa made a remarkable recovery and left rehab without a cane.
Celebrating life, Melissa went to Europe with her girlfriends, with the intention of returning home to help others and become a nurse.
Melissa had reached out to the people that saved her, but had yet had the chance to talk to the fire fighter-paramedics from Clearwater Station 47.
Months later in October 2012 Melissa was speaking at a church in Clearwater where two of her first responders surprised her. One of them was Cameron.
“I was weirdly giddy. I had this feeling about him,” she recalled.
Naturally, the pair met up again and they just knew there was something special. Cameron eventually asked Melissa out, and the two have been inseparable ever since.
Melissa calls Cameron her fairy-tale and we couldn’t agree more. These two deserve the happiest ever after!
Watch the heart-warming proposal in the video player above
Coming full circle: After a gruelling recovery, Melissa was finally able to get in touch with the man that saved her.
