Last October, Mykenzie Lane and Brandon Helmick, a young couple from California were visiting Las Vegas to see their favorite country singer perform. As Jason Aldean got on stage that night, the young couple did not expect anything to happen but be serenaded by the country singers songs.
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Tragedy struck at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas Strip, when Stephen Paddock, opened fire on the concert, killing 58 people and leaving hundreds of others injured.
On a date that will leave a more joyous memory in their minds, this past Friday, Helmick proposed to Lane on Laguna Beach.
The young couple, Helmick, 21 and Lane, 22, were engaged just as the sun was setting on the beach. Helmick placed a “heart full of rose petals” on Laguna Beach before he asked Lane to marry him.
When asked if she knew the proposal was coming, Lane replied, “I had some idea but I still cried my eyes out.”
An engagement is a special time for every couple, but for Lane and Helmick it holds the deepest of significance. Even though it signals a marital bond to come, the couple has already faced more than most couples will throughout the entirety of their lives.
Not only did they survive a shooting together, but during the Las Vegas shooting, Helmick used his body to protect Lane.
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When terror shook the crowd, Helmick, a baseball player from Saddleback College, threw his body over his girlfriends in order to protect her. He didn’t even think about it, and his immediate reaction to protect Lane after the first round of shots was apparent.
The two ran for a storage container. As Helmick went to pull Lane into the container, a bullet hit Lane’s left ankle, traveling through her shin, and exiting out, going through her cowboy boot.
“From that point, he said we have to find a way to the hospital. I tried to walk but couldn’t, so he threw me on his back and carried me until we found an ambulance,” she said.
The couple reached an ambulance, only to find a mass of people in need. Lane stated that the couple took an Uber to the hospital because there were “people in it that needed much more help than me, so we proceeded to find an Uber which thankfully gave us a ride.”
Lane and Helmick have a special relationship and one that has been tested greatly. Lane stated that the couple has “endless amounts of blessings to be thankful for every day because we’re still here.”
But she still admits that the attack “impacted our lives in more ways than one.”
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“We don’t like to be apart for long periods of time, we stick together especially at night,” she continued.
The couple is excited to be married and has already set a date for their wedding: August 3.
“Our relationship has always meant the world to me,” said Lane. “But when someone sacrifices their life for you, how could you ever get more reassurance than that?”