My Second Marriage Proposal

By someone else on June 22nd, 2001

It was a pretty nice day, sunny and warm, and I didn’t really have any more preparations to make, so I decided I would do it. Under the pretext of showing you the city, we made plans to do some driving that evening. I had the ring already – in a design that symbolized how perfectly matched we were. After dinner, we got in the car. I was nervous, in a way, but you didn’t pick up on it. By this point I was just cruising on momentum, letting my intentions guide me along and not worrying about the details too much.

We arrived at Cleveland Dam, and you had your eyes closed so the location would be a surprise. I showed you the lake, and you didn’t realize we were on the dam until we were about halfway across, when you saw a bronze plaque. My first surprise (the dam itself, and the big drop on its south side) was ruined, but you enjoyed the view anyway. We bounced back and forth between the two sides of the dam, admiring the view of the lake and mountains and the opposite view of the gorge, and then I asked you for your attention. I’d been waiting for a suitable lull in the pedestrian traffic, and once we (more or less) had the dam to ourselves, I got down to business.

“Okay, I need your full attention,” I said. Kind of a corny thing to say, I know, but you were pretty enthralled with the view and I figured you’d want to get to see what I was about to do next. You looked at me, and I started rambling:

“This dam is very symbolic of my love for you,” I said. Pointing left, I indicated the lake. “It is peaceful” and pointing right, to the water roaring into the Capilano Gorge, “and it is powerful.” Pointing left again, I said, “It is full”, and then I pointed right and had no idea what to say. The words, “and it is draining away,” came to mind, but they didn’t sound very accurate. I fumbled a bit, “umm” and finally settled on “misty.” The metaphor wasn’t that important anyway. At that point I got down on my knee, as I’d been instructed to do by everyone I’d talked to. They seemed to think it was important. I’m a big fan of equality, so I was a bit hesitant to grovel before you, but I think it acted as a nice introduction to what was about to happen. I wanted you to be fully aware of what was going on, so we could milk the moment together. At this point I pulled out a camera and tried to take your picture, fumbled with the flash a bit, then finally managed to capture you: red wet eyes, double chin (not your most flattering angle) and all. I didn’t have a big speech prepared – I just wanted to say the things I knew to be true:

“You’ve made me happier than anyone ever has. You’ve made me happy in ways I didn’t even know I could be happy.” I paused again, then pulled out a green box with the ring inside. I wanted to make this moment last forever, to enjoy the experience of love as much as possible. “Will you marry me?” I asked.

You said yes right away, and wanted me to get up and hug you, but I was insistent that you at least take a look at the ring before answering. After all, I’d put a lot of energy into getting it made. So you took a look, and confirmed your previous answer, and we stood up and hugged and kissed and floated off into the trees.