Stephanie & Marcus

Posted Monday, February 08, 2010 6:03 PM

When we go to the beach, one of our favorite things to do is search for treasure.  For us, treasures can be anything from seashells and sand dollars to dead crabs.

Marcus and I were spending another vacation at Sandbridge Beach, Virginia. It was an ordinary morning when Marcus asked me if I wanted to go beachcombing. We put on our bathing suits, slathered on SPF 35, got the bucket, and crossed the street to the beach. We began scouring the sand for treasures all along the coastline. Before long, Marcus asked me to come over and look at the treasure he found.  When I turned around, he was on his knee (with a super-sparkly one!) and he asked me to be his wife...
 
Okay, okay...that's how it was SUPPOSED to have happened.  
 
On our way to get the bucket, Marcus rolled his ankle coming down a set of stairs. Immediately, the top of his foot turned purple and swelled up. I went inside to get him some ice and ibuprofen. About five minutes later, we managed our way back up to the beach house. Marcus could not put any weight on his foot. I made sure his foot stayed elevated -- he was lying on the bedroom floor with his foot up on the bed -- and I noticed that it was getting bigger by the minute. Marcus had the ring in his back pocket (luckily he didn't fall on that side, or else he would have hurt himself even more), and while I was tending to his foot, he told me that when he fell, he found a treasure, even though we never made it to the beach -- me.  

Before I could take in what he was saying, he pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him. I hugged him with a death grip as he was writhing on the floor in pain until he asked to put the ring on my finger.   

So it wasn't quite the proposal Marcus had planned, but he instantly knew that he wouldn't be walking on the beach any time soon. I helped Marcus get ready for the hospital, and we set off to our first destination as a newly engaged couple. I enjoyed being able to say "fiance" at the hospital when they asked my relationship to the patient!

Marcus had an avulsion fracture in his foot, and I spent the next six weeks practicing my part "in sickness and in health." It was totally worth it.

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