NYPD grad shows Finest way to propose after Police Academy ceremony

**Buttercup** · 06-29-12, 11:18 AM

Rookie cop Anthony Grosso turned his Police Academy graduation into a lovefest Thursday when he suddenly dropped down on one knee and popped the question to his shocked girlfriend.

“Are you serious?” a beaming Melissa Galassi asked her beau. “Yes!”

And with that, Grosso capped his improbable journey from cancer survivor to cop by planting an engagement kiss on the woman of his dreams.

“Perfect career, perfect girl, perfect day,” the newly-minted 23-year-old officer mused.

Grosso’s road to this happy moment was not easy.

At age 9, Grosso came down with rheumatic fever and suddenly developed a heart condition. Then at 15, he was diagnosed with a kind of disease rarely seen in patients that young — testicular cancer.

The sight of friends and relatives — many of them police officers — at his bedside reinforced his dream of one day joining the NYPD.

“They came on their days off . . . to take me to the hospital and made sure my family was taken care of,” said Grosso, fighting back tears outside the St. John’s University arena where the graduation was held.

Grosso’s uncles said the tough teenager inspired them, too.

“He says I’m his hero — no way,” said retired NYPD Officer John Delgardo. “What he went through in his life, he’s my hero.”

Grosso beat cancer in 2005, and four years later he graduated from the University of Connecticut. He became a volunteer firefighter and an EMT in Putnam County, but what he really wanted was to be was a cop. And a husband.

Read more: NYPD grad shows Finest way to*propose after Police Academy ceremony - NY Daily News