“Tell me how you and Benny met…you know, how you got together.”
Aha! I LOVE that story. I was hanging out with a group of my favorite teens when Matty turned her attention to me and with a grin on her face, uttered those words. It was perfect girl-time conversation, and I always love the laughter when I get to the punchline – the line Benny used to ask me to marry him.
I love telling girls my story. They giggle in all the right places, understand that holding hands with fingers intertwined is completely different from holding hands the other way, and they get that dreamy, far away look in their eyes as they imagine what their story will be. It brings me great joy to recount the details of the beginning of “us”. It’s a beautiful reminder of the effort he made for me. He made me look good. He thought it all out and planned it carefully. He proposed in one of my favorite places with my best friends there as witnesses. It was the moment I knew for sure that he loved me for me, flaws and all, and 18 years later, he still does.
What about you? Does telling your story bring you sweet memories and peals of laughter? Did you celebrate with friends and family? Or were you like us – poor college students who didn’t have a clue about marriage, but naively pressed ahead, hand in hand? Are you inspiring others to dream about the possibilities in their lives by sharing your story? What was your punchline?
Here’s the quick version of our story: Benny told the story from the Bible about Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac’s servant was sent to find him a wife, but along the way there, he got nervous about choosing the wrong girl, so he made an agreement with God that whichever woman came to the well and offered not only him a drink, but offered to give his camels water too, she would be the one for Isaac. After talking briefly about our year long engagement, Benny told all of our friends that there comes a time in every man’s life when he has to ask that all important question. He got down on one knee, gazed into my eyes and said…
“Niki, will you water my camels?”
OH MY GOODNESS! that is the best story I have ever heard.
Picture, if you will, the French countryside: tiny solid farmhouses; lazy rolling hills bathed in darkness and silence broken only by the soft rustling of leaves in the breeze and drips of water rhythmically falling to the ground…
Now imagine the silence violently ripped apart by my laughter when I read that last line.
Our engagement story isn’t quite as romantic. I’ll tell it to you another time, if I haven’t already.
Tom always joked that this and that would happen if we got married but that he hadn’t asked me yet. When he did, I was cleaning the kitchen. I love your story, Nik. Love you and your genetically-combined-goofballs too.
<3