How he proposed

OH MY GOODNESS. How do we even begin to say thank you for the amount of love, kindness and congratulations that has been sent, in less than 24 hours.

We are so lucky to be happy and healthy right now and the fulfilment in my heart it has given me, seeing the smiles on our friends and families faces, when we have shared our wonderful news, has just been unimaginable.

Now the question that EVERYONE has been asking. How did he do it?

Well lets face it, given that we are in lockdown until god knows when, it was certainly unexpected.

I am a control freak, I always have been, I always will be; however the proposal is the ONE area of my life I have NEVER given much thought or input to, other than… “please don’t ever do it in front of people”.

On Tuesday 31st March 2020, Tadhg decided to pop out for a walk with our Stanley Bear. As I hadn’t showered or washed my hair for what felt like a lifetime, I decided to spend a couple of hours in lockdown, in our bathroom.

Tadhg returned after only 20 minutes and I was having a right old moan about it (in my head) whilst in the shower. “Why has he taken Stanley for a walk for 20 minutes, that just isn’t long enough” my inner monologue bitched.

After finally exiting the bathroom, we decided to take Stanley for a ‘proper’ walk and embark on our ‘one piece of exercise’ for the day. I was unsure as to why Tadhg had popped out earlier that day and he was being very weird when I asked where they went.

Anyway, the clocks had sprung forward and it was a lovely sunny late-afternoon. We returned home from our walk and Tadhg immediately ran off upstairs, shouting at me to follow him.

I excitingly ran up behind him, to find him sat in our bedroom, headed for his bedside table.

Tadhg often joked that he had already bought me an engagement ring and if I found it, I could have it. So as he reached for his watch box and said “I just couldn’t wait any longer to give you this”, I immediately thought he was trying to wind me up. I uncontrollably laughed and shouted at him, “I KNOW YOU’RE LYING BECAUSE I HAVE ALREADY LOOKED FOR IT IN THERE!”

I continued to laugh, however he continued to stare directly at me, whilst saying that he just couldn’t wait. As he lifted open the lid of his watch box, I immediately noticed a small grey ring box inside.

I screamed “YOU CAN’T DO THIS NOW BUBBA” in utter shock, still trying to figure out if it was some sort of evil quarantine joke.

He got down on one knee beside our bed, Stanley proudly sat directly in front of him, both of them staring up at me and said something along the lines of (anyone engaged will know this part is usually a blur):

“We could be stuck in lockdown for months and although I had something very special planned, after the jeweller hand delivered this to me today, I just couldn’t wait.” He slowly opened the ring box and continued, “all I know is that I love you more than anything and I want to be with you forever”.

x