Thursday, July 20, 2006

The Man Who Wouldn't Give Up

We're supposed to tell our proposal stories today. Jason says that I agreed to marry him to get him to stop pestering me. Boy, that backfired!

The story of our courtship can be read in these two layouts:
Soul Mates, left
Soul Mates, right

We dated on and off for more than eight years before we married. The off times were not due to a lack of love, just wrong time, wrong place. We both had things we needed to do and we needed to grow up some before we were ready to be adults. But we both knew when it was time. Jason had come to visit me from Italy (where he was stationed at the time) and we had actually gone ring shopping.... for the future..... or so I thought.

I was in college and working full time and had to do both on the last day of his visit. He took me from place to place so he could use my car. We had planned on going out to dinner after I got done with work and then I would drive him to the airport for his red-eye flight.

I worked for Sony and they had a policy of not letting visitors past the lobby unescorted. We had arranged that I would meet him in the parking lot. But when I got done with work, I walked out to find Jason in his full set of dress blues in the lobby. Mind you, nobody that I worked with had ever met him, since he was stationed out of the country. So we got a LOT of sideways glances and grins from my coworkers. He said he wanted to take me out to a nice dinner and his blues were the only nice clothes he had with him. Okay, that sounds reasonable.

But neither of us were very hungry, so we decided to go for a walk first. We drove to a park that meanders along the McKenzie River and walked for a while. I led us to a bench just outside a beautiful rose garden. (It was late April, they were gorgeous, and am I psychic or what?) After a few minutes of mindless chit chat in which I kept tearing up because he was leaving that night, he got down on one knee. Yup, I lost it. About the only things I remember are taking his sunglasses off so I could see his eyes and some middle-aged women walking by on the path behind us, smiling broadly.

The worst part? Within an hour, we were on the road to the airport. The best part? I got to shock my friends at school and work the next day with a gorgeous diamond ring on my finger.

Happy birthday, Jason! I love you, even when you pester me!

7 comments:

Bonnie said...

I read your scrap pages story on this, wow, truly remarkable that all those years you were seperated and had gone your seperate ways, that despite all that you still ended up together! A fabulour, wonderful, romantic story and I loved the way you told it! Thank you for sharing this!! (Now I know why you chose this prompt before all the others,you had a story to tell!!)

heather said...

What a wonderful story, now I'm tearing up again!! Love the image of the roses in the background and the man in uniform and the ring!! Lovely!

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

you made me cry! what a sweet story!

loonyhiker said...

Wow, for a nonemotional person, this story had me crying! It was so romantic! I loved the layouts too and read every word. It sounds like a harlequin romance!

Gabby Faye said...

Just a beautiful story! I am so glad you shared it with us.

faery-wings said...

*sniffs* OMG, what a romantic story- these are all so sweet. Doncha hate it when they pester you but they know they can get away with it cuz you love them so much?

Karen said...

What a great story Meg. There's gotta be a movie in this.