My son was slow in proposing, much like his uncle and grandfather. He met this young lady when her boss, who lived in my son's building, gave him her email address at another tenant's party and said he ought to meet her. That was over 6 years ago.

A month later, the same group gathered for Cinco de Mayo, and this lady asked our son if he had met the young lady in question as yet. She knew they were emailing lots. When he said no, everyone at the party razzed him till he had enough beer and nerve to call her that night. They met at 2am in a grocery store parking lot halfway between their two places. So they started to date, and he asked her to Thanksgiving dinner that year (and every year since) because her family had moved far away. The women in our family were quite impressed: she was pretty, sweet, obviously crazy about him and fit in well with the clan.

They were cute together, but still he was not ready to commit for years. Finally, his father had a talk with him about he needed to be fair to this young woman and either make plans for their future together or let her go so that she could meet someone else. He balked at that, so we knew he was getting more serious than he would admit.

A year after that, I told him about the diamond from his great grandmother's ring that he could have reset. Another year later, they finally got engaged, and in September they got married in Big Sur.

Now they just have to get their careers percolating along so that they can afford to live in a larger place in the Los Angeles area. That is going to take some beating the pavement on their part as he free lances and she needs to find a new job and career.

I would post some pictures that were emailed to me, but I don't know how to move an email picture into the kitchen table.