The Story of Us, Part 8

(If you need to catch up, here are parts 1-7)

He came over to my parent’s house one morning in late July.  It was just a regular summer day for us, nothing special.

“What do you want to do today?” he asked.

“I dunno.” I replied.  That was a pretty standard reply.  It always took us awhile to think of something to do, which is why most days we ended up just hanging out and watching movies.

“Let’s go to the Botanic Gardens.” he immediately said.  Looking back, this should have been a clue that there was something up.  He never just knew what he wanted to do like that.  But it really didn’t register with me at the time.

So we headed to the Botanic Gardens.  When we arrived, he acted really strange when we were getting out of the car.  He didn’t get out right away, and for the first time that day I stated to suspect that maybe something was up.  But, in typical Megan fashion, I quickly forgot about my suspicions.

“Let’s go to our tree.” he said.  Our tree!  I had almost forgotten about our tree, and wondered if we would even be able to find it.  Many years earlier, we had climbed up a tree in the gardens and carved our initials into the trunk.  It was cheesy and goofy, but that was just us.  We had been back a few times to our tree, but I hadn’t thought about it is quite some time.  I was a little surprised that he remembered exactly where the tree was located in the gardens, but I then I remembered that he is a man who only has to go somewhere once and he will remember exactly how to get back.  He’s the opposite of me in that way.

We found our tree and climbed up about 10 feet to see our initials.  They were still there, looking a little weathered.  We reminisced about the “old days” for awhile, and then I began to read the other carvings in the tree.  There were lots of initials, hearts, and love notes carved in the old trunk.  By this time, I had completely forgotten about the odd behavior from earlier and I was just reading the carvings without a thought or a care in the world.

“Meg, will you marry me?”, I read aloud.

“Oh how sweet!” I exclaimed. “Someone proposed right here in this tree!”

Then it dawned on me….Meg, will you marry me?…MEG will you marry me?!  Is that Meg ME??  Is that for ME??  My heart started pounding and I looked over at Derek.  He had a grin stretched ear to ear and was reaching into his pocket.

He opened the little black box.  “Yes, it’s for you.  Will you marry me?” he asked.

I was giddy.  Absolutely giddy.  “Yes, of course!” I said.

We hugged (well, kind of.  We were in a tree after all) and kissed.  We took some pictures with a camera he had brought along.  The camera, it turned out, was the reason he had hesitated when getting out of the car earlier.  He had been trying to sneak it into his pocket.

We laughed about how I almost didn’t see it, and then even when I did, I didn’t realize it was for me.

And we were happy.  It was official.  I would be Mrs. Derek Thurman, and nothing could have made me happier.

8 Replies to “The Story of Us, Part 8”

  1. awwwwwww…..so sweet….I once asked a boy to carve our initials in a tree, but he was an eagle scout and looked at me like I had asked him to punch his mother. It was the beginning of the end…LOL

    two words. pic. tures. 🙂

  2. i remember getting a letter at camp shiloh explaining this exact moment. as i read it i screamed aloud in the mess hall. i was SO stinkin’ excited!!! love your engagement story wamh (with all my heart).

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