Nineteen Years Ago

"I'M ENGAGED! Today has been the happiest day of my life!! I'm sitting here looking at this beautiful ring perched on my finger, and I can't believe it. I'm going to marry Neil Watson on August 5th. If I could only express in words my joy. I have fallen in love with a man far more wonderful than I ever dreamed of." -Journal Entry April 23, 1994

Nineteen years ago this very moment, I sat with butterflies in my college apartment, waiting for my dad to pick me up and take me home. I was excited to see my family, but I was beyond myself with excitement to see my boyfriend. Neil and I had been carrying on a long distance relationship for six months now. We had only been in one another's physical presence maybe a dozen times, but our emotional and spiritual relationship had developed quickly and deeply through phone calls and letters. Yes, Neil told me he loved me before he kissed me. It was one of those Jane Austen-like romances. But now that our relationship had blossomed beautifully on a deeper level, I was ready to actually be with this boy I had fallen in love with.

I was leaving Ricks College for good. I was hoping to go home and marry the man of my dreams. We had gone ring shopping during one of our twelve dates, and I was hoping that Neil wouldn't take too long to propose. 

That night, Neil picked me up and took me to Temple Square. "This is it, I thought." What was it going to be? Did he have buddies hiding behind one of the bushes, ready to pop out and serenade me as Neil got down on one knee and proposed? Would it happen by the fountain? We walked hand in hand around the square, stopping to enjoy the view of the beautiful temple. Finally, we stopped on that slab of cement sitting across from the temple. The locals know exactly what slab I'm talking about. It's the square of concrete that every newly-married couple stands on after they have been married. It offers that perfect picture of the couple with the temple standing behind them. Every LDS Utah-raised female of the 80's had dreamt of one day standing on that slab with the man of her dreams.

We stood on the slab and looked back at the temple. My heart was pounding out of my chest. It was the proposal I had always dreamed of. Neil looked into my eyes, and said...."Well, should we go?" 

"Um...o.k." I was a little stumped. Really? He brought me all the way to Temple Square, the day I got home from Ricks, and he didn't even propose? I gathered my composure, shrugged my shoulders, and decided that today was not the day I was getting engaged.

We drove home to Neil's house. He said that his parents had some left-over dessert at the house and asked if I wanted some. I wanted a diamond, but dessert would suffice, I suppose. Treats tend to appease me rather quickly.

His parents were nowhere to be found when we got to his house, but there was a pastry box sitting on the counter. Neil said, "You open the box while I get some plates." The box was taped shut. Hmmm. If the dessert is left-over, why is the box sealed shut? Of course, the thought didn't even occur to me as I wrestled with the pastry box. I finally got the thing opened, and this is what I found.

I was shocked. Completely surprised. I didn't even suspect. For the first time in my life, and perhaps the last, I was speechless. Neil took me into the dining room, where nice china was set up and a small vase of roses sat on the table. My ring was wired into one of the roses. It was perfect. A perfect surprise proposal. 

It's funny. I told Neil after the fact, that I was sure that he was going to propose at the temple. He looked at me funny. It had never occurred to him that I might think he was going to propose there. Apparently teenage boys of the 80's didn't have the same romantic visions that teenage girls did.

And the rest is history. 19 years of perfect history. That was not the last time that Neil would surprise me. It has happened again and again in the smallest and most perfect ways. I had no idea the journey that lay before me with this exceptional young man. No idea. He is my joy. He is still the love of my life.