Above Photo by Leah Haydock Photography

Will You Marry Me?

Barry Bently, Newton Highlands, MA

Wed Carrie McCracken in Portsmouth, NH, June 2009

My day started with what I considered an early Saturday morning drive from Boston to Portsmouth. My intent was to obtain permission from future father in-law to marry his daughter by 9:15am and be back in Boston by 10:30—easily enough time to go Christmas shopping with Carrie at noon. My plan went awry almost immediately when my intended 15-minute chat turned into an hour.

That night, my plans continued to go astray as Carrie put up a fight to go out for dinner or go back to my apartment to exchange gifts, but I prevailed. Although my butchered attempts at wrapping her Christmas gift, a bathrobe, didn’t look like much (I used duct tape), I was confident that what was inside the pocket would make up for it.

Unfortunately, she didn’t immediately put her hand inside the pocket; when I told her that there was an additional gift she asked, “slippers?”