From head to toe… Cyn Nelson

When we met, David promised to love me longer than forever: for Forever-and-a-Day. But after 10 years together and a lot of ups and downs - including two cancer diagnoses and a career change – I began to wonder if we would make it. I loved him, I told him, but I needed a change and moved to Florida.

I decided to fly back to Philadelphia for the holidays and on Christmas Eve, after running errands, I arrived back at his house. When I came in he was waiting for me. He took my hand, asked me to sit on the couch and proceeded to take my shoes and socks off. He then told me that he loved me from head to toe and presented me with a tiny box. In it was a gold toe ring with 8 diamonds. He proceeded to put it on a toe on my left foot. “Now everyone will now I love you from head to toe,” he said. It was the sweetest thing.

He handed me champagne, turned music on and then sat beside me. I was tickled I could go to Florida and show it off. Cancer treatments had made me very self conscious… and we had not talked about marriage of late so I was surprised when he sat down next to me and began to tell me that his real present was not something that he could buy from a store or put in a box and wrap and tie a bow around. “My real gift to you today,” he said, “is that I am offering you my heart and all of my love.”

I stared at him, wide-eyed. He continued: “A long time ago I ask God to bring you into my life and make you a part of my family and to make us happy together. You are my Angel and I love you and I have fallen in love with you all over again. I love you deeply, passionately, endlessly and hopelessly. So, today, on Christmas Eve, my real gift to you is that I am offering you my heart, my love, my passion, my soul, my body, everything that I own, everything that I am and everything that I will every be. And, I want you to know and understand that my pledge of “Forever-and-a-Day” is still real and holds a lot of meaning to me.

“You always ask me to close my eyes and tell you what I see in the future. When I do, all I can tell you is that I don’t see a future without you in it. I see you right by my side, holding my hand, smiling, laughing, being happy and walking together down life’s path…

I tell you all the time that you complement me in so many ways and you make me so very happy. I believe that while we may be two independent souls it is time for us to come together and be one heart, one love, one passion, one life.

You truly are beautiful in every sense of the word. You are warm, loving, and passionate and have a very kind heart and giving nature. You have a beautiful soul, a beautiful face – and beautiful feet, too.

I love you! I need you! I want you! I want you to be a part of my life always. You are everything to me and I want to see your eyes sparkle and your passion for life and the happiness we have shared together once again radiate from you.

“I promise to always take care of you and give you everything you have ever wanted and dreamed about. So, even though what I am offering you today is not something that could be bought or put it in a box and wrapped with a bow, I know there is something that I can show you to symbolize my feelings for you and how much I love you and that will allow you to show the world what you mean to me, and that fact that I am in love with you.”

He pulled out a beautiful ring “with 10 diamonds, one representing each year we had been together” and asked me, “will you marry me?”

Of course, I said yes.