A college senior in Texas recently became engaged to her long-term boyfriend, nearly five years after he saved her life during an unexpected pool accident. The traumatic event brought the young couple closer together in ways they could never have imagined.

Alan Mann and Brooklyn Boyer were both high school students and had only been dating for about a week before the accident occurred in June 2020.

At just 16 years old, Mann, who had lifeguard training, quickly stepped in and took lifesaving action until emergency responders arrived.

The incident happened while the two were swimming with friends. Boyer, then 17, hit her head on the bottom of a pool, causing a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed, the couple explained to KCBD.

“Lots of people say it’s like a coincidence or something, but I just think it’s a God thing,” Mann told the station.

“That day was hard, but looking back at all the things that, all the good things and blessings that came from it, just really amazing to look back and be like God was with us this entire time.”

Boyer, who now uses a motorized wheelchair and attends Lubbock Christian University, faced months of rehabilitation and admitted she had concerns about whether her relationship with Mann would endure.

“I had told him that I understood if he didn’t want to continue dating or anything like that, just because I don’t know, I wasn’t naive to that, that not everyone can do that or wants to do that, but he never left my side,” she told KCBD.

Initially, Boyer was unable to even lift her arms, but over time, she made significant progress and is now able to drive. She remains hopeful that she will achieve her goal of walking again someday.

Through her recovery journey, Mann has remained deeply supportive, describing his fiancée as nothing less than amazing.

In February, during a delayed Valentine’s Day celebration, Mann proposed, and the couple has been overjoyed ever since.

“I’m still kind of gaslighting myself like, this isn’t happening, I’m not getting engaged yet,” Boyer told KCBD when reflecting on the moment leading up to the proposal.

“And then he walks me over to where he wanted and got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife and I said yes.”