I never proposed to my wife. No bended knee, romantic dinner, or moonlit stroll on the beach. Although we’d known each other for quite awhile, we hadn’t been dating very long. We weren’t even in the same state at the time.

As we spoke on the phone, she expressed some uncertainty about explaining to her parents how serious our relationship had become. I started talking about how we could tell them we were thinking of getting married in December, but that we needed to spend time together now to see if it was going to work. By the end of the phone call, we had decided to get married in June. It was April. But perhaps I should back up.

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