After dating for almost 7 years, Curtis asked me one day if I wanted to have a Christmas card photo taken to send Christmas cards. I was taken back from it because this was not something Curtis would normally voluntarily do. Instead of agreeing with it, I put up a small counterargument to the idea. I asked him, “Won’t people make fun of us. I mean we are not engaged, we do not have children, we are not married, and there is not even a dog to put in the picture.” After a soft, “okay, fine” response I knew I had hurt his feelings and I gave in. My only stipulations were that he plan the entire thing.
The morning of November 21, 2014 Curtis traveled from our hometown to Indianapolis, IN where I live currently while attending dental school. He called me when he was almost here and told me he knew it was going to ran on Saturday, so wanted to know if I wanted to take the picture today. I told him “Sure, I would love to take it today”. Even though I still had skepticism about taking this picture and sending cards I did not want him to know. He arrived at my apartment and we began to get ready and find outfits to wear that would match the holiday. It was around 3:30 p.m. and Curtis started rushing me. He would say things such as, “Hurry up, it is going to get dark”, “Come on, the place is going to close”. I assured him it was 3:30 p.m. no need to worry about it getting dark outside yet. I finished getting ready and then we got into the car and drove to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The entire ride he was cool, calm, and collected. He never even stumbled his words. After 7 years of being together I know when he is nervous or something is bothering him and I did not sense anything.
We got out of the car upon arrival and we went inside the IMA to use the restroom. After we came out of the restroom I asked him to go inside the gift shop to gander at the Christmas decorations I saw from afar. He told me no because we needed to make sure someone would be outside to snap our picture. So, I followed him outside as we are inches from a professional photographer he whispers, “I am going to ask him”. I said under my breath, “Curtis, no he is a professional photographer he isn’t going to take our picture on our cell phone for free. Please do not ask him.” We both walked past the man and continued to the destination of where Curtis wanted to go, Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture. There was not one person in sight to be able to take our photo. What were we going to do now?
When walking to the sculpture Curtis had noticed a white bus with a driver in it waiting on a tour group to come out from the museum. He said, I am going to go and ask this man on the bus to take the picture wait here. The man was kind enough to come outside in the cold to take our picture. I handed him my cell phone and explained all he had to do was press the button on the screen. We stood in front of the sculpture while he snapped a few images. After a few I looked at them and decided the sun was setting in a bad position so maybe we should take a few from a different angle. The kind man snapped a few more photos. I took a look and was satisfied with the images. I politely thanked the man and told him to go back to his van because it was cold. He insisted I do one more picture for good measure. I accepted his request.
As I handed the phone back to the kind man and go to put my arm around Curtis I noticed he was turning towards me. It was then I realized why he wanted the Christmas card photo. He pulled a box from his pocket and started saying the sweetest things to me, got on one knee and I was speechless. After catching my breath I immediately told him YES!
To this day I wish I would have gotten the sweet man’s name who took our photo. However, he left us with the sweetest message before leaving: “If it means anything to the both of you, my wife and I are celebrating 44 years of marriage next week.” I only hope to be able to tell someone the same thing one day while helping them have the happiest day of their life.
Curtis and I are happily engaged!
