Family,  Lee

A whopper of a proposal: how Lee asked me to marry him

black_ring_box

I knew a proposal was coming, I just didn’t know exactly when or how.

Lee and I had started dating in 1995, moved in together in 1996 and had shopped for rings in the last few months of 1997. In January 1998, the opportunity to buy a house {the same one we live in today} popped up suddenly and we made the decision to go for it even though we weren’t yet married.

Hmmm, maybe we will open the door to our new house for the first time and I’ll see rose petals spread all over the floor surrounding the ring.

Or maybe he’ll drop to one knee during one of the Wichita State University home basketball games we attend as season-ticket holders.

I don’t recall being stressed about it or impatient … just curious. My mind was plenty busy with buying my first house and my job as a writer/editor at Wichita State University.

In February 1998 on our closing day, we spent the morning doing the necessary paperwork at a couple of different offices and then went directly over to the house to prepare for the move that weekend. After unlocking the door and looking around for a few minutes, Lee left to go get some lunch for us.

While he was gone, my friend Morgan stopped by to see the house since she was nearby. She was there looking around when Lee got back. He handed the grease-stained Burger King bag to me and I reached in to steal a french fry … but I felt something that was neither burger nor fry. It was a little black box.

So there in the empty house on Stratford Lane, kneeling on the kitchen’s horrendously ugly 1970s-style linoleum, with Morgan awkwardly standing near the sink unaware of the proposal plan, Lee asked if I would marry him.

Even though I knew it was coming, I teared up a little. I said yes. Morgan congratulated us and left. We ate our burger and fries. Soon after, we started planning the wedding for January 15 of the next year.

It wasn’t the most romantic proposal a girl could dream up but it did catch me off guard … and today we celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. {No, we do not celebrate our anniversaries with meals at BK!}

wedding_dip

Writer. Photographer. Lover of travel. Believer that all who wander are not lost. #Mizzou grad living in Wichita, Kansas.

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