The day was October 25th, 2013; we’d just embarked on a day of fun and adventure in Montego Bay, Jamaica, visiting the beautiful island courtesy of my college friend’s destination wedding. We started our morning with an early morning breakfast and then we decided to try our hand at some water sports. First, we did a little kayaking, but under Stenio’s (mis)direction, we would have been vacationing with his family in Haiti if I’d let him continue to guide us. So, I managed to get us back on track and back to shore safely, where we then took up some water tubing and wind surfing.
After our morning of fun, we had worked up an appetite and decided to venture off the resort to the city of Montego Bay to find some authentic Jamaican food. Stenio hired us a cab driver to show us around for a few hours, and we found a small, Jamaican, family-owned place for lunch. While eating and taking in the wonder that is Jamaica, Stenio asked me, ”Would you marry me?” Though I knew he was joking, as he’s asked me the same question numerous times before, I told him yes, as I’ve told him numerous times before, and then he said we were married. I told him that I didn’t have a ring, so he made a ring out of our used straw wrapper, placed it on my ring finger, and we continued on with our day. Of course, that ring fell off.
Our driver continued our island tour, taking us through the hills to see the mansions and the slums. He also took us to an old hotel that sat atop a mountain, overlooking Montego Bay. The view was breath-taking, with the sun setting over the island. In my mind, I thought, “this would be a beautiful spot for a proposal…”
On the way back to the resort, our driver stopped so that we could do a little shopping and visit Margaritaville. While shopping, Stenio became very quiet and reserved, but I figured he was just worn out from our busy day, so I ignored him. It was a quiet ride back to the hotel and a silent walk to our room.
Before we got dressed for dinner, I decided I wanted to go sit on the beach right outside of our room for a bit, but Stenio insisted that we needed to talk. I told him I’d be back after I went to the beach, but he was adamant that I needed to come to the room right then!
When I walked into the room, Stenio was sitting on the bed. He looked up at me and asked me if I wanted to marry him. Assuming he was carrying over our conversation from lunch, I started to answer, but he continued, telling me that he loved me, and that I’d made a huge impact in his life since the day he met me. He told me that he had wanted to do “this” at our beachfront dinner scheduled for later that night, but he wanted it just to be the two of us. He didn’t want anyone else around because he wanted the moment to be about us, as our relationship was going to be between us. Catching on that he was indeed proposing, when he asked me to marry him again, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a beautiful engagement ring. Of course I said, “YES!”
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