03/24/2024
28 years ago today, Joe and I got engaged aboard a southwest flight from Oakland to Portland.
Short version: My parents, sister and I were flying to Portland to meet his sisters and discuss our future. During the flight, a flight attendant brought be a gold box of long stem red roses. She said she was embarrassed but there was an older guy in the back who saw me get on the plane and wanted to gift me these roses he bought for his mom. I joked it was probably Joe since the flight had just come from Portland. The card said Mom and it was crossed off and said pretty lady. As I looked up, I saw Joe walking down the aisle in a full suit carrying a crystal Cinderella coach in his hands. He was followed by a flight attendant carrying a video camera and he knelt down to propose. I cried, my mom cried, my sister said don’t be mad. The flight attendants announced overhead that we had just gotten engaged and asked if we would like to go to the back of the plane where they had saved a row and presented us with a card and bottle of champagne. Once settled in the back the flight attendant asked me how I felt. I said shocked but concerned because I was realizing Joe was a really good liar.
The long version: Joe had gone to Reno the week prior with his mom and aunts. He had purchased a video camera. He had also gone to see my parents to ask for a hand in marriage. While on the trip in Reno, he took videos of their trip. The plan was for him to go from Reno to Portland and I would see him there the next week. He had left me with the keys to his apartment and parked his truck at my parents house as he would be gone. I passed by the apartment every day on the way to work and I’d watch to make sure all looked ok. We talked every day. When I called his mom‘s house, she would tell me that he was at the mall or out with Manny and he would call me shortly after. When I spoke to him I could hear all the Arabic in the background and assumed it was the family. The truth was that Joe did go to Reno but then return to Oakland never going to Portland. Every time I called his mom‘s house, she would call him and he would play the videotapes he had taken in Reno and since I don’t understand Arabic I had no idea it was the same conversation playing in the background every time we spoke. He proceeded to get around on foot, bus, or train for the next week and couldn’t turn on the lights in his apartment because I might pass by and see them. He arrived at the airport prior to my family. However, he had called my dad earlier that day or the day before to let him know what he was going to do. When he got to gate 23, he told the crew of his plans and they were all along for the ride. They hid him in a storage closet and told him as soon as the first passenger deplaned for him to run onto the plane. Obviously this was prior to current safety regulations. So then he sat in the last row until we got on and the rest is history.
And I still have each petal from those roses.
