He then left his apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to stay with Ms. Walsh in Harrisburg, Pa., where she was working at a hospital and had recently begun helping to admit Covid patients. He lived with her for about two months — at first, they stayed in separate bedrooms — before the two moved back to his place in Brooklyn together.
“It was challenging for both of us,” Dr. Nguyen said of that time.
“She was very understanding and caring,” he added of Ms. Walsh, who now works in the interventional radiology department at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. “She never held anything against me. All she ever did was take care of me.”
They became engaged in October 2020, after he proposed to her on the Brooklyn Bridge to a soundtrack of honking horns and catcalls from passing cyclists. To get to the bridge, they rode the subway to Downtown Brooklyn. “During the entire train ride there, Ben kept one hand over the same pocket,” Ms. Walsh said. “I kind of knew something was up.”
The couple were married April 22 at Holy Family St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Brooklyn before the Rev. Rafael Perez, a Roman Catholic priest, and 120 guests, whom they required to be vaccinated.
Among the attendees were the groom’s parents, Hoang-Oanh Nguyen and Thu Nguyen of Silver Spring, Md., both of whom immigrated from Vietnam to the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Also present were the bride’s parents, Joan Walsh and Michael Walsh of Vienna, Va.
“Ben and I have had so many wonderful days together,” the bride said a few hours after marrying the groom.
“But nothing tops today,” she added. “Today is the best day of them all.”
