GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — When a 20-year-old Grand Rapids man collapsed onto the sidewalk last March, he wasn't sure if he'd ever get back up.
"I was making my last wishes," Markel Pruitt recalls. "I felt my chest and ribs caving in."
With three bullets in his leg, Pruitt had run a block over from his house to Elliot Street SE. He knocked on doors in hopes that somebody would call for help. On the other side of the street, Lynell Miller had jumped up from her couch after hearing cries for help.
"As soon as I got to him he hit the ground," Miller recalled on Wednesday, over a year later. "I didn't know what to do other than just hold him and make him breathe."
The minutes they waited for the ambulance felt like hours, as Miller tried to stop the bleeding and Pruitt tried to stay conscious.
"She was basically my motivation to keep fighting, that's why I thank her so much," Pruitt said. "She motivated me to keep my eyes open."
When the ambulance arrived, Miller was asked to move aside. She instantly regretted not trying to get into the ambulance with him.
For the next year, Miller thought of Pruitt often.
"I watched for anybody who walked by with the slightest limp because I knew he'd been shot in the leg," Miller said.
Pruitt had Miller on his mind, too.
"I always told myself when I am able to walk, I am going to find her," he said.
After a year of hospitalization, surgeries and ongoing physical therapy, Pruitt can walk again. On Tuesday, despite the ongoing pandemic, he knew it was time. Pruitt nervously knocked on a few doors before he found the right one.
"I said 'This might be weird, but a year ago,' as soon as I said that, her husband Dan is like 'You're Markel," Pruitt said.
Miller heard her husband say Pruitt's name and ran toward the door.
"I ran and I grabbed him," Miller said. "There was no way I was not going to hug him."
Social distancing did not matter in those moments. The two hugged each other and cried.
"They've been waiting for me and I was waiting until I could get right to meet her, finally. It was crazy," Pruitt said.
"When he came to the door yesterday, it was like prayers being answered," Miller said tearfully.
The two made sure to disinfect after their embrace and kept their social distance. But, they have plans for once the statewide restrictions are lifted. On Wednesday, the two talked about finding a way to make their professional worlds collide. Miller is a photographer and Pruitt is a rapper.
"I really can't put it into words. I am just happy I'm here," Pruitt said.
The investigation into who shot Pruitt is still open. Grand Rapids Police say no one has been charged.
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