Human Interest Boston Marathon Bombing Survivor Engaged to Firefighter Who Helped Save Her Life "He's seen me on my worst day," Roseann Sdoia said of fiancé Mike Materia By Lindsay Kimble Lindsay Kimble Lindsay Kimble is a Senior Digital News Editor and the Sports Editor for PEOPLE Digital. She's worked at PEOPLE for over seven years as a writer, reporter and editor across our Entertainment, Lifestyle and News teams, covering everything from the Super Bowl to the Met Gala. She's been nominated for the ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30, and previously wrote for Us Weekly while on staff at Wenner Media. People Editorial Guidelines Published on February 2, 2017 03:40 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Amid the tragedy and horror of April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing survivor Roseann Sdoia met the man who is now her fiancé – because he helped save her life. Sdoia, who lost her leg in the bombing, is engaged to marry firefighter Mike Materia, reported the New York Post. The 48-year-old was standing near the marathon’s finish line when the bombs went off in 2013. Materia rushed to help her, even accompanying Sdoia in a police vehicle to Massachusetts General Hospital amid the chaos. “I asked him if I was going to die. And he told me that I was going to be okay, that I only had a flesh wound,” she told the Post of that day, noting that Materia came to visit her in intensive care as she recovered. AP Photo/Charles Krupa Even then, Sdoia said that her mother was already trying to set them up. “She was like, ‘Oh, did you see that firefighter? He’s so cute.’ And I was like, ‘Mom, I just got blown up.’ ” The survivor admitted that she was in so much pain that she was “probably not the nicest” to Materia during that time. “He’s seen me on my worst day,” she said. RELATED VIDEO: Dancer Who Lost Leg In Boston Bombings Returns To Ballroom Floor Hospital visits soon turned into more, with the happy couple eventually going on their first official date in June 2013. Materia proposed last month in Nantucket, with the help of their pooch, Sal, who was wearing a dog tag with “Mike wants to know . . . If you’ll marry him” engraved. Sdoia said, “I do feel that, in a sense, some things happen for a reason.” The couple’s book, Perfect Strangers, will be released in March and follows the lives that intersected the day of the bombing.