Kaylee Dedrick, a teacher's aide who was penned in by police and then pepper-sprayed at point-blank range during the Occupy Wall Street protests, is expecting a baby with the volunteer medic who helped her.
Dedrick and Robert Grodt met one year ago Monday when women, including Dedrick, were corralled by NYPD netting and then sprayed in the face by Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna.
Video of the incident went viral, and Bologna has been fending off lawsuits ever since. (The latest suit, which alleges brutality and various violations of rights, was filed in federal District Court in Manhattan last week.)
As Dedrick dropped to the ground in obvious agony, her white knight materialized in Grodt, a California native, who swept her off her feet and treated her at a makeshift clinic in a movie theater's utility closet, according to the New York Daily News.
A month later, the two were inseparable, sleeping side by side in Zuccotti Park. "Nothing strengthens a relationship like a chemical agent," Grodt told the Daily News.
The couple, who became engaged on New Year's Eve, are expecting a baby in two weeks, their lawyer, Ronald L. Kuby, told The New York Times. “Despite her lawyers’ requests,” the press release reads, “the couple refuses to name their baby ‘Pepper.’”
Although the Occupy protests did not create the type of revolutionary change their organizers had hoped for, the movement did lead to more than one successful proposal.
Deb Szczepkowski and Brian Douglas did not meet at the encampment in Zuccotti Park, but they were heavily involved with the movement and spent a lot of time at the park together.
Last October, Douglas proposed to Szczepkowski using the OWS "human microphone." Asking his soon-to-be fiancee if he would "occupy" his life, Szczepkowski agreed.
h/t Raw Story
CORRECTION: A previous version of this piece misspelled Kaylee Dedrick's name.