It’s not often that you can say that both people were surprised by a proposal, but it’s true in our case!
It started with Patrick’s love of mountain biking and rings from my late grandparents, James Stuart Searle and Dorothy Mary Hope. The rings were purchased by my late great grandfather in 1945 when James was overseas serving in the Royal Canadian Navy. After my grandparents passed away, my mom Penny stashed away the rings in case I ever got married. It was a long shot and Penny’s obviously quite an optimist, given the questionable characters that I brought home over the years. Penny, who was quite giddy at the thought of having Patrick as a son-in-law, passed the rings on to me when she learned that we were talking about getting married.
One day soon after that, Patrick and I went to mountain bike store and much to his surprise, I bought one. He was pretty excited because in his mind, buying a bike was akin to a pledge of undying love, a mile-high plate of chicken wings, a giant swimming pool full of beer and sidewalks made of Nanaimo bars, all rolled into one. We went for coffee while we waited for the bike and I pulled out my grandparents’ rings to show him. He surprised himself (and me!) by proposing on the spot. He was so overcome by everything, he even put the ring on my middle finger by mistake.
The rings mean the world to us and we can’t think of a better way to start off our marriage than with the rings that saw James and Dorothy through 58 happy years of marriage.
We also have to confess that we purchased a second set of rings that are also of great significance. We were at a liquor store in Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast after my first big day of riding and found beer bottle openers fashioned in the shape of rings. To us, these redneck gems are the perfect complement to my grandparents rings – after all, what marriage could be happy without lots of laughs and a bottle opener nearby?!?
