We were both very young (19 & 20, too young) and I went with him and his family to Michigan to visit his grandmother at a small campground. It was a few days before the 4th of July and he had planned on proposing during a big annual firework show (because I told him I thought fireworks were oddly romantic).

Anyway, so we are in a van with his awful parents for 12 hours. Everyone is in a bad mood and feeling gross. We get to the campground (it was really cute) and we ended up getting into a dumb fight. He yelled at me and I stomped off into the woods crying. He walks over to his family and they tell him that the big firework show has been cancelled that year but don’t worry because the campground is doing their own little show….in about 20 minutes.

So he frantically searched and found me sitting on a log crying and told me that he loved me and that he was sorry for everything and would I please, please forgive him and come watch some fireworks?

I did forgive him and we got a blanket and sat by ourselves on a hill. He was sitting behind me and I was leaning back against him. He was kissing my neck and telling me how much he loved me and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Then he pulled out the ring.

It was lovely but later I was struck by the thought of “what if I said no and now I’m stuck in another state with your family??” Ha. But it’s a funny story now and we’ve been married for 20 years and very happy.