1997: She Said Sure
1997 was a year of great change for me. I started the year miserable and lonely. Which is a line from the movie Marty. But I had not yet seen the movie Marty, which is a pretty good reason to be miserable, but I had others.
I was living in a different state than I am now. A state of habitual sin. A state of unfulfilled desire. A state of deep regret. A state of hopelessness. I mean South Carolinas not the bad, you can play tennis year round but I wasn't nearly the man I wanted to be and I was doing nothing to change.
A friend sought me out and offered me the hope of real change. As I started to work through my issues and allow God to change me from the inside out. I discovered something. I discovered someone.
I had a friend in a different state. She was in a state of healing. A state of awareness. A state of discovery, She was changing in Illinois while I was changing in South Carolina.
W e had been friend for going on 7 years. Everyone else noticed that we were meant for each other. But we were oblivious. Why would I date her? I would ask, she's my best friend. Then one Day I said I should court her, she's my best friend.
She flew down for Spring Break and it was clear that courting was like friendship with help. By the time Spring Break was over I knew and put an emerald engagement ring on layaway.
In July I moved back to Illinois with marriage on my mind. . When I earned enough to pay for the ring I asked her parent for permission to marry their daughter. They said yes and I made reservations at a fancy restaurant for the proposal.
After Spring Break I had written lyrics for a proposal and gave it to a friend who had written music for other songs I had written. About the same time I got the ring paid off, he sent me the cassette with the song on it. I asked a H.S. senior from our youth group to accompany me at a fancy restaurant. On the big night, he chickened out. So instead of bringing an accompanist ala Breaking Away. I brought in a cassette player ala Say Anything.
I was so nervous. I could hardly eat dinner. Because I knew I was going to propose. I turned on the tape player and began to sing:
It's A beautiful night
Your a beautiful girl
I thank God for the day
That you brightened my world
The song continued and when I ended with the title question Will You Marry Me My Darling?, Amy was unsure of what just happened.
/I had a habit and still do of showing all my poems, songs and writings to Amy to see if they are any good. She must have thought that's what I was doing.
"Is that what you are going to sing when you propose?" She inquired.
"This is me, proposing," I replied.
So she said, sure.
After which, she took out a piece of paper from her purse of all the ways she had known that I was going to propose that night. It turns out that since I had telegraphed my intentions, that she also was very nervous and didn't eat much of her dinner either. So our first official act as an engaged couple was to go to Denny's and have another dinner.
We got engaged 26 years ago this month. We have been through many changes since then but I'll always remember 1997 as the year God changed two people and led them to the path of being one couple.
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