In 1983, Kate and I were living in Mexico City working for Chase Manhattan Bank. We were twenty-somethings out to save the world and were madly in love. We had known each other for about eighteen months and had been living together for almost a year. We went to San Francisco to meet my brother and sisters. Several months earlier we had visited my mom and stepfather in Lima, Peru where I had purchased the engagement ring without Kate knowing. In San Francisco, we stayed in a funky Victorian hotel in the Haight Ashbury district. On the second day in the city I took Kate out for a hike at Lands End, which is a fantastic place at the northwestern end of the San Francisco peninsula to view the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay. I was so excited I was ready to burst. We hiked all the way down the rocks by the water on some pretty dangerous trials surrounded by poison oak. At the bottom, we had a picnic on the rocks with a gorgeous sunny view of the majestic bridge. I asked Kate if she wanted to make it permanent and gave her the Peruvian diamond ring. She said I had to get on one knee and do it right, so I got down and asked her to marry me, and she said yes. That was the happiest day in my life up to that point. There have been thousands of happy moments together since then, but that one sticks in my mind like it was yesterday.
I invite you to write about how you became engaged as well on THE BOOK OF MYSELF Gather Group.
By the way, if you read this before 1pm EST on Tuesday, February 13, 2007, please join Kate and me on a Gather Live Chat on the Ask the Author Group. We will be talking about our newest book, WHAT I LOVE ABOUT YOU, which is like a luxuriously long and fun love letter. And visit us on our website to enter a Broadway Books writing contest to win chocolate roses and our book (a $74 value).
Thanks,
David Marshall
rate
email
print
link to this page
