How We Met
Daryl and I met when he was 18 and I was 17 during our first year at the University of Western Ontario (Canada). We were neighbors in residence and have been inseparable since! After almost 10 years of dating, we moved to Ireland to continue our education, myself studying medicine and Daryl studying law.
How They Asked
Ireland has been in one of the strictest COVID-19 lockdowns in the world for the start of 2021. We were only allowed to go 5km from our homes for months. Daryl had had this proposal planned originally for my birthday weekend (in February) but since the COVID-19 lockdown was continuously extended, it had to be rescheduled FOUR times.
The first weekend that inter-county travel was allowed happened to coincide with Daryl finishing his exams. He insisted on us going on a day trip to drive the Dingle Peninsula. He decided that he wanted to go to Dunmore Head, which he later told me was the most westerly mainland point in Ireland, to watch the sunset. After a day of him stalling, losing service (so he couldn’t communicate with the photographers), and rain clouds rolling in, it was finally time to walk up to Dunmore Head to “watch the sunset”.
I had to stop three times on the way up because I was so overwhelmed and excited at the thought of it all happening at the top of the hill (or me realizing I’m crazy and orchestrated this entire thing in my head). Once we got up there, he put his arm around me and said “you know why I brought you here right?” and of course, I started bawling, blacked out, and apparently said, “I do now”.
He got down on one knee, popped the question, and explained that he wanted to come to the most westerly mainland point of Ireland so we could be as close as possible to home (Toronto, Canada) for this special moment. We enjoyed more tears, laughs, and stories with the photographers and went home to FaceTime all our friends and family!
