On Dec. 15, 2020, Thera Bronsord was unexpectedly thrust into the public spotlight at her job working as a nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.

With thousands of COVID vaccine shipments arriving in Minnesota, Bronsord was the first on the medical center’s list to receive the shot in front of television and newspaper cameras.

“Everyone is just feeling kind of hopeful that this is the beginning of the end. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Bronsord. “One piece of the puzzle that might let things go back to the way they used to be.”

Two years later things did go back to the way they used to be, at least for the most part.

“We come in to work every day with a mission to serve our veterans and knowing that there is the potential we could be harming them by bringing COVID in so knowing that we had this extra protection to protect them was a great feeling,” said Bronsord.

Bronsord said she never had any side effects from the vaccinations she received and, fortunately, was never diagnosed with COVID.

“Five years feels both like a lifetime and like it just happened yesterday,” said Bronsord.