Molly first heard about Phil from Tim Rosencrans, her first intern in the medical ICU and one of Phil's now groomsmen. While sitting around waiting for admissions that never came, Tim began scrolling through photos of the intern class, and potential dates for Molly, when Phil’s name came up. 

Molly and Phil met on October 20th 2023 at the Ann Arbor VA. Molly was on a float rotation, moving from team to team wherever help was needed. That day, Phil’s senior resident was presenting at noon conference and Molly stepped in for an hour to supervise the team. When she walked into the work room, Molly announced herself to everyone and began socializing with the team. Phil spun around in his chair to say a quick hello before going back to writing notes, too preoccupied with his work.

At some point during the hour, a code blue was called overhead and Phil's team was responsible for responding. Given how early it was intern year, Molly was expected to supervise the code. The two headed down the hall together as Phil braced for something serious and Molly - well aware that many “code blues” at the VA turn out to be less urgent than they sound - was thinking about what she was going to have for lunch. Molly was right, the patient was a just little lightheaded and she reassured the nurses. As they returned to the team room, Phil was left impressed with how quickly and confidently she handled the situation. 

The second time they saw each other was at the annual IM tailgate in November. Molly was talking with Ankit Mishra, one of Phil’s co-interns, about single life in Ann Arbor. Ankit spotted Phil in the crowd and waved him over, saying to Molly, “He’s from Wisconsin, he rides a motorcycle, he shoots guns, he hunts, he rock climbs!" As Phil approached, she joked to Ankit that he sounded like every other Midwest guy. So, without missing a beat, Phil smiled and bounced back into the crowd to find the beer pong table and his friends.

A couple of weeks later, while Molly was on nights at the VA, she was relaxing in the call room around midnight watching TV and scrolling through Instagram. She sent a bunch of follow requests to the mix of interns she had worked with recently, a way of welcoming them to the program... and Phil was one of them. At that exact moment, Phil was out at a bar with friends. He saw that Molly McNeely had followed him and announced it to the group, surprised and flattered. They told him it was a move and cajoled him into DM'ing her to ask her out for drinks.

Their first date was at Alley Bar in Ann Arbor. Molly hated her Moscow Mule, nursing it for about 4 hours, and Phil didn't know what to do so he drank his Old Fashion for the same amount of time. Neither of them ever got up to order a second drink - not that the conversation paused long enough for them to do so. She remembers falling for his warm eyes and deep voice. He remembers how easy everything felt with her, how natural the conversation was and how fun she made everything.

It was the week before Thanksgiving and they'd both found the thing they'd spend the rest of their lives being grateful for - each other.