Weddingbee Blog

So here’s how it happened, guys.

Allow me to set up the story: most of Mr. S’s family lives in the midwestern U.S. His parents live in northeastern Indiana, and his brother, sister-in-law, and both of his grandmothers live in northwestern Ohio. We make the 10-hour drive every year to spend Christmas with them. We planned to leave on Wednesday, December 23rd.

About a week before that, Mr. S’s dad called to tell us that his 87-year-old grandmother, who is very independent despite many health problems, fell in her garage, broke her hip, and spent almost 24 hours on the floor until Mr. S’s dad decided to take a drive to check on her, found her, and called 911. Poor, poor Grandma G.

She had her hip surgery a few days later, but the shock of the surgery combined with the breathing and heart problems she’d been suffering from for several years left her almost completely unable to breathe. She was hooked up to a lot of machines to help her breathe, but it was looking like she could stop breathing at any time. Grandma G’s living will stated that she didn’t want to be hooked up to a ventilator.

So on Monday the 21st, Mr. S’s father called us to tell us that Grandma G probably wouldn’t make it to Christmas. We quickly packed, Mr. S called his boss to tell her he was taking an extra day off of work (I’d already taken the day off), and we got prepared to leave a day early, Tuesday the 22nd, for what would be a sad, somber Christmas.

As we left Tuesday morning, Mr. S’s dad called again with some good news. They’d transferred Grandma G from her small-town, local hospital to a larger hospital in Toledo with a first-rate cardiopulmonary ward, and she was already doing much better. We drove all day Tuesday and got to the hospital around dinnertime. Grandma G seemed disoriented but was breathing decently. We went back the next day, and her mind was much clearer. Mr. S’s parents and the doctors all thought that her improvement was a Christmas miracle!

Meanwhile, I’d kind of suspected that Mr. S was planning to propose either before we went to his parents’ or while we were there, just so that he could share it with them in person (since we only see them a few times a year). When Grandma G got sick, I figured that the proposal wouldn’t happen. It just didn’t seem appropriate to do it with her being so sick. But when she started to recover so quickly, I started to get my hopes up again…but not too much.

On Christmas Day, everyone gathered at his parents’ place. It was me, Mr. S, one of his older brothers (the other lives in Florida and couldn’t make it this year), his brother’s wife, his other grandmother, and his great aunt. We did the usual opening of presents, one at a time. When we were finished (after several hours), Mr. S’s dad stood up to make a round of his famous Bloody Marys. But Mr. S said “Dad, don’t go anywhere yet.”

And then I knew.

He said “There’s one more present.” He stood up and walked over to me with a small gift bag. Inside was a box, and inside the box was my ring. He said “Will you marry me?” and I said yes, and stood up to give him a giant hug and kiss. I almost cried, but I managed not to.

After all of the congratulating and hugging and kissing, I called my mom, and then we called Mr. S’s other brother and sister-in-law in Florida.

That was it. Not too many bells and whistles. He didn’t get down on his knee. And that’s fine. Actually, that’s perfect. We are not a bells-and-whistles couple. The fact that he asked me earnestly, in front of the people who matter most to him, was perfect enough for me. I wouldn’t change a thing about it!

Were you pleased with how your proposal went down?