Thursday, November 16, 2006

Nancy French brings the Happy

I asked for happy, and you all answered. Thank you ever so much :) Not only do I now have some fabulous book recommendations, but Nancy French sent me the answers to my unorthodox (okay, nosy) questions about her book, RED STATE OF MIND.

Those of you who have experienced RED STATE know that several chapters contain hysterical stories about Nancy's first year of marriage to her husband David. Much of the humor comes from the fact that they didn't know each other all that well when they fell in love and got married, something Nancy herself didn't realize until they'd tied the knot and moved from Tennessee all the way to Manhattan.

Now I'm a sucker for the early details of happily-ever-after stories, so the minute I finished the second chapter of RED STATE, I sent an email to Nancy, asking for the skinny on how David wooed her. Her answer was even funnier than I expected:

Q: How did David propose?

Just a few weeks after we met, we were in Mississippi where David’s lovely Nana lived. We’d taken a walk around the neighborhood before dinner, came to a large concrete sewage pipe, and – inexplicably – sat down there to talk. David was going on and on about his feelings for me, and I tuned back in right when he said, “So I guess what I wanted to ask you… was if you would marry me?”

I was shocked. There was no ring, no candlelight, not even a one-knee plea. He just threw it out there on the spur of the moment, and I said yes. I pray more about getting a good parking space than I did about getting married.

He did get me an awesome ring, by the way, which I insisted upon before telling my mother that I was engaged. In fact, David asked me to marry him before he’d even met my Dad. Plus, I was only twenty. You can see why I wrote “Red State of Mind” and not “Steps to Ensure Your Marriage is Perfect.”

(Note to Trish: Please delete this blog post before my kids get to be marrying age.)


There you have it folks, true love on a Mississippi sewer pipe. Confirms my suspicion that if when the guy is Mr. Right, the locale just doesn't matter :)
Thanks for making my day, Nancy!

Who else has romantic stories to share? (Bonus points for funny...)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh, one day - if we're together and there's no one around... I have to get David to tell his "first kiss" story.

Awful and hilarious.

Nancy

Anonymous said...

My husband had planned to propose when the ball dropped on New Years Eve, but we were watching it on TV and he got confused by a Campbell's Soup commercial and dragged me up onto my feet for a little 'ceremony' about twenty minutes early. Still very sweet.

I won't even bother to mention his original intention, which involved a slick ski run, a little 'accident' and a little grudge.

Trish Ryan said...

My favorite part of my wedding was when our pastor said, "Do you Steve..." and Steve blurted, "I do!" without even being told what he was signing on for. I think that was the moment my Dad knew I was in good hands :)

LEstes65 said...

Did I ever tell you that I proposed to Wright? I would periodically ask him to marry me and he would - predictably - answer "Some day." So one day, on a sidewalk in Allston, MA, we were parting ways to go to work. I turned around and yelled down the sidewalk, "Hey! Marry me!" and he yelled, "OK!" I stopped dead. I ran back to him and went, "Wait. Are you serious?" and he said, "Well...are YOU?" Ten years and 2 kids later, yah. I guess I was.