a man and his jewel

This Christmas Eve will mark 67 years that my grandfather proposed to my grandmother. He told me the story today, and it's something I wanted to both share and remember:

As told by my grandfather; his fierce, blue eyes alight with joy:

" I was 21, and stationed in Edmonton, South Carolina. Our chief basically told us to get lost for the weekend. He didn't care what we did, or where we went, we were just told to be back on Sunday night, and to check in. I wanted to see your Grandmother. I took a bus from South Carolina. It was so crowded on the bus, I had to stand the whole way home. My brother picked me up at the bus station, and drove me home. I took the car down to Harriman, and parked it slanted across there from the municipal building. I was going to suprise your grandmother, so I parked a little way down the road. I had no intention of proposing to her, I just missed her, and thought about her often. As I headed down the road, I passed a little shop with jewelry in it. I had some time to kill, waiting on Grandmother to get off work, so I popped in, mostly just to get out of the cold. I started looking around and I saw a ring, I automatically thought of her, my sweet jewel, Irene. I asked the shopkeeper how much that ring was. He told me 50 dollars, which was a lot of money back then, you know. I looked in my wallet and found that I had exactly that amount. I bought the ring, and headed down to the five and dime, where grandmother worked. I watched her through the window, cleaning and straightening up. So sweet and happy, my jewel. When she got off work, I suprised her- she was both happy and shocked to see me! When we got in the car, I took her hand and slipped that ring on. The next day, my dad and my brother drove me back to South Carolina. They had to pool their gas stamps to get me there and get back home, but we all made it. I was late getting back, but I slipped in and went straight to bed. No one ever said anything to me!"

My heart is melting. This may be the sweetest story I've ever heard, and the fact that it happend to two people I love so dearly, is simply magical. I love you both...

Love,
Heather