Sometimes the best laid plans really do go awry. 20 years ago, my husband had a perfectly orchestrated proposal planned out. He rented the convertible, planned the dinner and dessert, suggested the drive out to the beach for a walk and pre-recorded the midnight phone call for my very own cellphone.
It was all perfect, except for one small detail – me.
I’ve always kept him a little off kilter I think. I don’t think like he does, and I don’t look at things the way he does. So when he expected me to have my cellphone charged that night, I didn’t. Mistakenly, I assumed that since we would be together on our date that evening, it wouldn’t be necessary then to charge my phone since he was the only one who ever called me on it.
Of course, that threw a monkey wrench into everything.
I wasn’t really sure why he even rented a convertible on that April evening. It was still kind of cool in the evenings on those April nights in Pensacola and so while the top and windows were down, we had to blast the heat because I was so cold!
He also kept acting strange all night. He kept asking why I hadn’t charged my phone and how much battery did it have left. I had almost left it at home that night – again he was the only one that called me on it – but I kept flipping it open and telling him –it’s got 10%, it’s got 5% etc. We were out walking on the beach when it finally died. He asked if it had any battery left and I said no. So we sat down on the sand and looked out at the sky. It was a beautiful night and the moon was beautiful. He started talking about the moon and how round it was and he ended up just winging his proposal and I remember being shocked and excited all at one time. He give me the ring and I said yes - but I had literally no idea what I had put him through. I had no idea how I had messed up his plans by letting my phone go dead.
We sure have laughed about this through the years – the reality is I wouldn’t change a thing! 20 years later it’s still a precious memory and I have loved reminiscing about it all day today! And as Paul Harvey used to say "and now you have the rest of the story!"