Me, 10 days before meeting The Engineer
47 years ago today, The Engineer asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I’d been invited to a wedding shower and was voicing my reluctant enthusiasm about the prospect of attending. He tapped my nose with one finger and said, “You know, when we get married, you’ll have to go to wedding showers.”
“But you haven’t asked me,” I managed to blurt despite the somersaults of my heart.
Silence, 2, 3, 4 . . . then “Well, will you?”
”Will I what?” I said, turning to look him squarely face-to-face. “If you want me to marry you, you’ll have to be clear in your proposal. I request and require clarity so there’s no misunderstanding.”
He slid off the sofa, took to one knee, held my hands while looking me straight in the irises and asked, ”Will you marry me?”
”I sure will!” I said on my way to planting a big fat kiss on his mouth.
Before he left that night, we sat outside in the swing, quietly reflecting on what happened earlier. “Let’s not tell anybody just yet,” he suggested – an idea with which I fully agreed. We both wanted to sleep on it, it turns out, to be quite sure in the light of day, and besides, it was April Fool’s Day, after all.
We met on Saturday, January 27, 1973
became engaged on April 1, 1973
said “You bet I will” (a.k.a. got married_ on July 31, 1973 – six months after we met.
It all happened quite fast, our togetherness, and I haven’t regretted my decision once (although if I knew then what I know today on Day 21 of The Great Sheltering-in-Place Adventure, I’d’ve asked him to study hairdressing on the side).
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