the proposal

Joel asked me to marry him September of last year. We had just returned from a weekend in Charlotte, where Joel visited his Grandmother and I spent time with people I had traveled with to Ladakh, India over the summer. Monday we were back at work, but Joel surprised me by getting off early and all-of-a-sudden wanting to take a hike. Funny, yes, but I went with it. We drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway to find a spot to watch the sunset and ended up at Craggy Gardens, one of my favorite places, where incidentally Joel had actually never been to before. We hiked up to the bald at the top just in time to watch the sun go down over the beautiful near-360 degree panorama.
He began telling me how good it was to see his Grandma over the weekend because he got to hear a lot of her stories, and told me all about how she and his Grandfather were married in 1943. He was in the Navy, and they had dated for a while but she always refused his proposals (there were many) since she didn't want to marry during the war. One day he called from port and asked (again), but she thought he was talking about going to dinner so she said yes; after he hung up she realized her mistake. She told a co-worker she had just agreed to marry Ross that weekend so they went out and bought a dress on her lunch break. A few days later they were married and headed to Boston.
While telling me this I could see Joel was a bit nervous. He then said, 'I have something to ask you...' At this point, seeing him holding something in his hand, I realized what was going on and almost before he could ask his question we were both a mess, jumping around and crying. I finally remembered to say 'yes' (of course!) after several minutes of only being able to say, 'oh my God!'