How We Met
Joe and I met in Central Park… Sounds cliché I know! His friends approached me and a friend as we were lazing about in the the park on a warm and sunny evening in April. We chatted and made small talk and joked around. We left shortly after and said it was nice meeting them but we didn’t exchange numbers or information – we only knew their names.
Two days later I was grabbing coffee with a friend down on Wall Street where I worked at the time. I caught the eyes of a handsome stranger as he was passing me to walk into the café I had just left. I recognized him but took me a few seconds to realize who he was… He said hello, told me I looked familiar and then remembered that I was “the girl from the park”.
We laughed over “what a small world” it is and made a plan to grab a drink that week. We’ve been inseparable ever since.
how they asked
We flew to San Francisco for a week of work. Joe had conferences to attend and I was working remotely for the week and spending time with my brother and sister-in-law who live out there. I was born in SF but moved to London when I was a toddler, so I have been back many times to visit, and my mother always tells stories or living there with my father and what fun they had, and stories of taking my brother and I to the park when we were little.
My father passed away five years ago, and our trip coincided with the fifth anniversary of his passing. My family and I had scattered my daddy’s ashes on a sailboat under the Golden Gate Bridge nearly four and a half years ago.
Flash forward to our trip – Joe had told me we were doing a sunset cruise near the bridge with a captain who organized small charters. We had been on a similar sunset cruise earlier in the year whilst on holiday, and I had expected it to be the same – sharing the boat with a small group of strangers.
We arrive at the pier and there’s a girl waiting to get on our boat. The captain explains that the other couple cancelled, so his friend Abby would be joining us. The four of us – and the captains beautiful dog – set off and start sailing towards the bridge. It was a perfect day – not too windy but sunny and calm and there was a slight chill in the air.
As we get closer to the bridge, the captain asks if we want to head to the bow. Joe takes my hand and leads me to the front of the boat and I assume he wants to clown around and have a titanic pose! Instead, he starts getting mushy and I can feel his heart beating into my back as he hugs me from behind and we look up at the bridge. Before I understand what’s happening he’s down on one knee and asking me to marry him!
He proposed where we had scattered my fathers ashes and later explained to me that he wanted it to be a happy place for me too. It was the most magical moment and I couldn’t hold back the tears.
We hug and I cry (a lot) and I look back to the boat and realize that Abby “the friend” is taking our photos and was a planted photographer! He planned the most fantastic proposal and I’ve been on cloud nine ever since :) I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.
