I am certain that my future husband understood right from the beginning that I always have an opinion and so it was best to pick the ring I liked. After deciding on the ring we went to a Hawaiian restaurant which seemed a little strange because, upon reflection, the waiter served my desert with a little fortune cookie on the side. The fortune said, "Confucius say girl who find proposal in fortune cookie should say 'Yes'!"
He told me that he was going to give me a lot of little gifts before our engagement so that I would never expect when I was going to receive my engagement ring. The date was April 17, 1971 and we were sitting in his little red Chevrolet Corvair in the driveway of my parent's home. He presented me with a can opener and a 32 ounce can with the lid sealed tightly from the Del Monte factory where he worked. The outside was covered in paper with cleaver art work done by his sister. When opened, I found a long chain with little wrapped gifts attached ( I can't remember what all of the gifts meant but I do remember the dime attached inside a giant costume ring. (a dime in ring). We laughed and laughed about how I thought this would be my real engagement ring. At the end of the chain was a pretty handkerchief and knotted in the center was my beautiful diamond engagement ring.
The surprises have continued throughout our married life and seldom correspond to any holiday or celebration. My favorites are the items attached to the tennis ball hanging from the center of the garage. The tennis ball allows me to know how far to pull my car in so the garage door will close properly. I especially like the $money hanging from a clip but the most endearing are the little roses clipped from my garden, place in an empty medicine pill bottle full of water and hanging on the tennis ball clip. It never fails to prick my heart deep down. Sometimes the clip has a photo of one of my grand kids that we got in the mail, or a check we have been waiting for. One day as I returned home from work and pulled into the garage my new motorcycle electric jacket was hanging on the clip. It always cracks me up to have anything there to brighten my day.
I have laughed my way through our marriage as I have followed the shoe, socks, pants, belt, hat and anything else on the path to our bedroom. We rate his bed making efforts with a % mark - rarely and only occasionally making it to the 100% mark. On occasion, the decorative pillows on our bed have been transformed by him to resemble the finest in design creations.
He constantly "buys my chairs" a phrase we picked up from the movie, "Phenomenon" where George Malley secretly buys every chair that Chels creates just so she will feel successful and happy about her efforts. But most of all, and my most cherished gift is that my sweet companion gives me my wings to fly!
