Jillian: We met while working at St Luke Hospital in Maumee. He was a transporter and I was nurse tech working through school. Flash forward 6 years later (and a couple new jobs later), he finally mustered up the courage to ask me on a date. A week later, the Chicago Cubs won the world series for the first time in 110 years universally signifying that this was meant to be. That sealed the deal. From the first laugh at that wonderful La Fiesta restaurant on the night we decided to go on a date, to the present day as we sit here writing this, we knew that the number of things that we have in common was more than coincidence and that our love was meant to be.

Everyone knew. Everyone, but Jillian. I knew family was important to Jillian, so it was only right to have her mom, sister, and her niece involved in what would be the proposal. Naturally, after gathering Bean's (niece) approval, I was able to move forward with planning the proposal. The plan was to pop the question in Pennsylvania when we were able to get her family together. I was going to kneel behind Jillian when she wasn't paying attention, pop the question, hopefully get a yes and then ride off into the sunset. However, i did not anticipate being as wholly nervous as i was standing there, with everyone, in that Morgantown kitchen. December 7th, 2018: *Let me preface the following by saying that I am NOT an anxious or nervous person typically, but as i stood in her mother's home, I was sweating like I was doing yard work on a hot July day and Jillian wouldn't let me in the house until the grass was cut.* So, anyways, I finally get everyone into kitchen and everyone knows their queues. Lynda starts talking to Jillian about some recipe and I think I have my moment to ask. I start to kneel down, but near-peril occurs when Jillian starts to let her attention span drift. She starts to look back, nearly catching me in this awkward half kneel limbo hell, when her mom successfully steers her attention away from me using those damned potato latkes as bait. Finally able to follow through on my kneel, I was lucky enough to ask the woman of my dreams to marry me and get a yes.