Meet the Winner of our 2nd Valentine's Day Contest:
"Share Your Most Romantic Story"
RUNNERS-UP
Matt Hoepfer
My then-girlfriend and now-wife and I had a long-distance relationship back then.
She had told me several times that she would like for me to propose to her while on a white horse (I'm allergic to horses). Also, she loves (and I just hate) when I wear a suit.
So one time when I visited her, I asked her to leave the room for a moment. Then I proposed to her, wearing my best (and only) suit and "riding" a white horse-head-on-a-stick that I had made myself before the visit.
I must have looked so ridiculous that she felt pity and accepted my proposal!
Robyn Bomar, Niceville, FL
My mother was a young woman who was just 18 years old when I was born. She married her high school sweetheart and within 3 years had two daughters. As often happens in these situations, my parents were too young and immature to handle the life they tried to create. They divorced and she was left to support herself and two babies without a college degree.
She barely scraped by for a little over a year, working at the local hospital reception desk and living in a low-rent apartment. Life was not easy but she was not one to complain about the choices she had made.
One day, with no cash for the local laundromat, she saw the owner of the building she was living in. He was a nice man who was dabbling in real estate as a hobby and trying to spruce up the apartments. My mother asked the man if she might write him a check for cash to do some laundry. She wrote the check for $10.
The man very much liked this sweet young woman and her two little girls. She always made sure our hair was pretty and our clothes were neat and clean. She was quiet and a good tenant, and all the other tenants liked us a lot. The apartment owner and my mother became friends.
As time went on, they became more than friends and he eventually asked my mother to marry him. He wanted to provide a better life for us and she was in love.
They went house hunting. The houses they looked at were beyond her wildest dreams; suburban three-bedroom homes with big front yards and swimming pools in the back. It was almost more than she could imagine!
He watched her every expression for some sign of which house she loved. She tried very hard not to be anything but agreeable and thankful for ANY of the options he presented her. One house in particular was so perfect. But it just seemed too expensive for her to mention specifically.
One day in the midst of house hunting, he asked my mother to meet their real estate agent to pick up some papers. The agent would be showing a house to someone else and said to stop by to grab the paperwork.
My mother recognized the house as she pulled into the driveway...it was "the one" and it made her heart hurt just a little to think that someone else was considering buying it.
She noticed the door was slightly ajar as she reached the front porch. As she walked in, she immediately saw, in the entryway, a small card table with a single rose and a little note card that simply said, "Welcome Home."
He had bought her the house that he knew she would never ask for. And he didn't tell her, for years and years, that her $10 check for laundry money had bounced.
This February marks my parents' 32nd wedding anniversary.
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