My husband proposed to me on Dolly Parton's birthday, in the rain, in the car, in the parking lot of Natural Foods grocers. He had a song written and secretly stashed his guitar in the trunk, to take me to a park and play it for me, but the rain crashed his plans.
We stopped at the Natural Foods on our way to go have lunch with our friends Terry and Alexis. He told me to wait in the car, which confused me, when he went to the trunk and came back with a letter to read to me. The most beautiful letter, full of meaning and intent and absolute vulnerability. I cried and said Yes, of course, and we were wrapped in a private moment of shared emotion and excitement and then a man knocked on his driver's side window, startling us, and asked if we had jumper cables.
Anthony got out in the rain and jumped that man's car for him and then we drove to Elgin for lunch with our friends and it will always be the most beautiful Dolly Parton's birthday we've ever had (and we've had several). Whenever we go to Natural Grocers we park in that same spot.
Gorgeous.
I suppose everybody's got a memorable proposal story, but that was just the topper.