She said yes!

Out of all the people I have met in my life and all of the ones I have loved, none of them can compare to how much they’ve impacted me as much as Sam has. I love her more than any words can express and I want to spend every single breath with her...every single one.

A few months ago, Sammie had gotten news that her mother would probably not live past October. The news hit her like an earthquake. That night, she had cried for hours on my shoulders. She would be nineteen and without a mother. That’s something most nineteen-year-olds can’t say and I hope would never have to say. When she was crying on my shoulder, she was an open book. She expressed sorrow over the fact that her mother would never get to see her graduate from college, watch her get married, see her grandchildren, experience her buying her first house, and growing old her with her father. Now, most of those things I could not make happen, but there was one thing on the list that stuck in my mind and plagued me. Her mother would not be able to attend her wedding. The thought filled me with sadness. I couldn’t imagine my wedding without my mom. Planning the wedding without my mom next to me, shopping for dresses without my mom, and without her sitting in the front room as the officiant declares our marriage. I couldn’t imagine having to experience that. So, I sat down and thought about it for a very long time. There was not a doubt in my mind that Sammie was the one. She was the one that I wanted to spend every moment of my life with. With her parent’s permission to take her daughter’s hand in marriage, I set out on my quest to put a ring on this girl’s finger and have her mother walk down the aisle with her. That was my quest. That was the driving force behind this all. And at only nineteen years old, I proposed yesterday.

Yesterday was the perfect day for the proposal. Sam had awoken at around three in the morning to shower and get ready for work by four. I dragged myself out of bed and made her breakfast as she showered and told her that we were going to go horseback riding when she was done with work. I made up an elaborate plan that I would pick her up from work and bring a change of clothes so she could change out of her scrubs. I kissed her goodbye and she walked to work.

While she was working, I was preparing our house for the post-proposal event. My plan was to propose while horsebacking and then have another surprise for her at the house when we’d get home. I spent hours putting the project together, taking balloons, filling them with helium and letting them float throughout the house. Then, on each string of the balloons, I attached a Polaroid picture. Each picture was a memory that Sam and I had shared and they dated anywhere from preschool all the way to college. On each picture, I also wrote a little message describing one thing that I loved about her or that memory. On the back of the pictures, I put the date and the event in which the memory had happened. After hours of work, I had successfully filled the entire house with nearly 125 helium-filled balloons and Polaroid pictures. I then sprinkled fake plastic rose petals all over the house, on the kitchen counters, the floors, the couch, the bathroom, and on the bed. With the rose petals on the bed, I spelled out “I love you”.

Sam was scheduled to finish work at noon, and I made our friend Allison drive to her work a little earlier just to ensure that Sam wouldn’t walk home if she had finished early. As we waited in the parking lot, I was anxious. My heart was fluttering...not with nerves but with excitement. I kept checking if the ring was still in my purse and every time I looked, it was still in the same spot. She came out of work a little past noon and got in the backseat of Allison’s car. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and took the bag of clothes from my lap. Allison drove the two and a half hour drive back to her hometown where her family owned a horse ranch and took people on horsebacking trips. This wasn’t our first time at Allison’s horse ranch, in fact, we’ve been there at least five times, so going here was nothing out of the ordinary. Usually, Allison or one of her family members are required to go with us when we go out to ride the horses, mostly for insurance risk purposes, but somehow Allison had convinced her family to let us go alone. Allison played the “sick card” and acted as though she had a bad stomach ache and told Sam and I that she wouldn’t be coming with us. She handed us our yellow vests to put on, once again, something for safety and insurance risk purposes but I was happy with wearing the vest since it had a large pocket in the front where I had slipped the ring box inside so there was no longer a large bulge in my jeans pocket.

Allison’s father had already saddled up two horses for us and I climbed on the back of “Charlie” and large, beautiful dark brown and shiny stallion. Sam climbed on “Starcrest”, a medium sized, shiny black horse that gets its name from a white patch on its neck that resembles a star.

We set off on the trail, side by side, Charlie with Starcrest. Allison’s family owns over a hundred acres of woodland which extends all the way up to a limestone cliff which oversees a valley of rolling hills and even more trees. It is about a half hour ride to the cliff and Sam and I rode side by side the entire way, cutting through the dirt paths. Sam consumed most of the time by talking about her day at work before asking me what I did all day. I laughed and lied that I cleaned the house and watched Netflix all day, which was believable. My heart was going over a million miles per hour and it felt like five minutes into the ride, we were already at the end of the trail. We jumped off our horses and tied them to the posts and went to the edge of the cliff, sitting down and letting our legs hang over the edge. The valley was beautiful, full of luscious green trees and plants, but then again, it wasn’t as beautiful as the lady sitting next to me. We sat at the end of the cliff for about ten minutes, taking in the views and making small talk as Sam rested her head on my shoulder. Eventually, I got up first and Sam followed me, standing up and beginning to walk back to her horse. I stopped her and got down on one knee. Almost instantly, she clasped her hands over her face. “Lia...Lia….Lii.aaa..” her voice crackled in the cutest way possible as she started to cry. I was practically shaking with nerves and excitement as I began.

“Samantha Grace ******, you have been the love of my life since day one. You are my moon, my stars, my heart, my soul. I can’t see a future without you by my side. I love you with all my heart and I am beyond blessed to have such a beautiful and compassionate girl like you in my life. I will always love you forever and always, until the end of time, and I’d like to spend that time with you. Will you marry me?”

By the time I actually had finished my short speech, she was crying hysterically and slowly nodding her head. I felt a wave of happiness flood throughout my body causing a shiver to travel down my spine. I stood up and she wrapped her arms around me and gave me the biggest and longest hug she has ever given me. She was still crying as she hugged me and I could feel her body shaking in my arms. She was still crying when she pulled her head off my shoulder. “I love you” she whispered and planted her soft lips on mine. “I love you” she repeated as her head fell back on my shoulder. I took her hand in mine and she picked her head off my shoulder. Slowly, I slid the engagement ring on her finger and removed a matching engagement ring and gave it to her to place on my finger. We kissed one more time and I told her that we should start heading back because I had more surprises in store for her. She wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded, jumping onto her horse and staring at the ring on her finger as she waited for me to climb onto Charlie.

We got back to Allison’s house to find Allison’s entire family outside applauding as we rode in. Sam cried again and gave each one of them a hug. Meanwhile, I was still tying my horse away in the stable but as soon as Sam was done hugging all of them, she turned and tackled me playfully to the straw bed in the horse stable and gave me another kiss on the lips, and then another one, and another one, and another one.

About four hours later, we got back to the house. It was already late but both of us were wide awake. I led Sam into the house and turned on the lights, Gleefully, she walked around the house, balloon by balloon, looking at the pictures and reading my messages I had written her. Again, she cried harder with every balloon she passed. As she walked around the house, I explained to her that I wanted to get married so soon to fulfill her wishes of having her mother in her wedding and I told her that her mother had known for weeks. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She pulled me in close, putting a hand on my butt and she kissed me. “God I love you”. She kissed me again. “I fucking love you.” She kissed me again. “I love you so fucking much”. She kissed me again. “Come with me,” she said, pulling me into the bedroom and playfully tossing me onto the bed, causing the rose petal “I love you” to get scrambled up. I could see where this was headed, I could see the lust in her eyes. I interjected. “Let me run you a bath so you can calm down and process everything. You’re still crying, Sam!” She only laughed and looked me right in my eyes and said “We’re doing this right now” as she removed her shirt.