The Whole Story

For those of you wishing to know here is the story of the engagment.

In May 2009 I, Laura, went on a month long trip to Greece with UVic. While in Greece I had a cell phone in case of emergencies as well as to call my Doukhobor choir the night of their big festivle preformance to see how it went. Naturally I told Darren that I had a cell phone and naturally we texted each other non-stop.

One day, before My Dad's and Darren's 10hr car ride from Victoria to Nelson, Darren texted me and said someting along the lines of, "I keep thinking how fun it would be to ask your dad for permision to marry you on the way up to Nelson". The first of many texts that prove that Darren can't keep a secret. This would have been not too long before May long weekend only 2 weeks after i left for my trip.

Before the text about asking my Dad permission to marry me we had a long textual corrispondence and this is just a snippet.

"What is your sudden obsession with marriage?" - Laura

"I miss you. Its really showing me how lost i feel without you, how much you mean to me. How much i want to be with your forever and a day :)" - Darren

"aw, glad to know i had to go away for you to realize your affections for me ;)" - Laura

"lol, hey! I've wanted to marry you for at least a year. I just don't want to wait anymore because i love you, and need you badly" - Darren

"I love you!" - Laura

":) would you love to hear that i couldn't help but look at diamond rings i couldn't afford online last night?" - Darren

after that i tried to put it out of my mind but it was slightly hard.

I got home from Greece on May 27, and i was feeling fat and ugly. I asked Darren if we could be more active that summer and he said why don't we climb Mt. Finlayson, I stupidly agreed.

We agreed to climb Finlayson that sunday which was May 31st. On May 30 we were at Walmart getting some snacks for our movie. Rings that Darren had bought me from Walmart the previous year were starting to turn my fingure green because they were loosing their finish. I found a ring i liked and joked to Darren that he should buy it for me to replace my other rings.

Sunday came around and when we got to the base of the mountain i wasn't feeling up for it, nor was i feeling good. Darren asked what he could do to get me to the top of the mountain and i told him he could buy me the ring i saw at Walmart. He responded with "ok, if you make it to the top of the mountain I will give you a ring."

Little did i know that when i told him i wanted to be more active and he suggested Finlayson i was just walking into his preconcived plan.

It took us a while to get to the top because as i said earlier i wasn't feeling very well and we almost didn't make it. We finally did and Darren sat me down on a rock in the shade. He then swivled infront of me on both his knees. A position at the time i thought was unusual and slightly odd. He then took a Michael Hill bag out of his back pack and i asked "What are you doing?" he then pulled out a box out of the bag and handed it to me where again i said "what are you doing?" while thinking "its earings, you're getting yourself worked up for nothing, its not an engagement ring". Inside the box was another box which he took back and i believe i said "what are you doing" a few more times. He then opened the box and asked me to be his wife to which i didn't respond in words but actions by grabbing the ring, hugging him and bursting into tears all at the same time.

He later informed me that he did indeed asked Dad for permission on the way up to Nelson and that he had had the ring for about two weeks before I got home from Greece.