Another Celebration in the Nursing Home

Today is another anniversary. It is the fifth anniversary of Romeo's marriage proposal to me. I brought Romeo more cheesecake today to celebrate.

Five years ago today, the day after we met, after a vegetable stir-fry dinner we prepared together, Romeo said to me, "I know this is way too early to ask. I'm going to ask you later, but I want to ask you now, too."

I looked at him, knowing what was coming.

Romeo said, "Will you marry me?"

Yes, that probably seems odd to you -- a marriage proposal the day after we met. The day after we met!

But it did not seem odd to me. It seemed late. I thought to myself, "What took you so long to ask?"

Everything about the two of us together was right, and we both knew it. Yes, why not a marriage proposal the day after we met?

My answer to him that evening was, "Yes, without a doubt in my mind."

The "official" proposal (with ring) came a month later, on my birthday, and the wedding was a week before Christmas, almost four months after we met. The rest, as they say, is history.

Celebration in the Nursing Home

Five years ago today, neither Romeo nor I knew where we would be today. Five years ago today, our history began. Five years ago today, Romeo and I met.

Today I went to his nursing home and brought him a special treat to celebrate: cheesecake. Good cheesecake. He gobbled it up happily and said, "It doesn't seem like it was five years ago, does it?"

Indeed it does not. There was no dementia then. Or shall I say it hadn't shown any noticeable signs.

Officially, we met online, then spoke on the phone, then made a date to meet in person for tea. Every year, until now, we celebrated our actual physical meeting by going to that same tea shop and enjoying green tea (for Romeo) and rooibus chai with soy milk (for me), toasting our good fortune, and honoring that first meeting.

If I could turn back the clock and back myself out of the situation, as if it had never happened, as if our meeting had never taken place, would I? Would Romeo? The answer for both of us is that being together has been the richest, lushest, most loving times of our lives, with the most spiritual growth each has ever experienced. Give up all of that? Nope, never.