A quick recap of the love story before we get to the engagement.
Glo initially met Gordon at DND. She has the initial experience recorded here. God is in the details, because it was only through that experience that she met Gordon. I would hear about Gordon sending out a text to the group, telling them that he was going to study at the library, and asking if anyone wanted to join him. Glo always did. And then she invited him to come to our house over the summer. He never responded.
When the group got back together in September, they ended up doing dinner and watching Atlantis or El Dorado (I don't remember specifics). But Glo, being her comfortable self, ending up leaning against Gordon on the couch. She told me afterwards that she could tell he was freaked out, and every time she would lean forward to get another snack or something, he would readjust to make himself more comfortable while not disturbing the status quo. I liken it to when one of our animals is doing something really cute in our laps, and we will do nothing to disturb them ;-)
I'll never forget talking to her a few days later, and she got another call. It was Gordon. What she said to me: "Gordon's calling. He's probably gonna ask me out." Sure enough, he did. They went to a sandwich shop for dinner, ending up talking for an hour at the table, and finished the night with Glo telling him that "we should do this again". That was all he needed, and she called me excited about it.
At this point, the brothers showed up for Comic Con (held in Salt Lake City). Glo, not knowing Gordon super well, invited him. Knowing Gordon now, Glo knows that inviting Gordon to a large event with a million people where he's expected to spend lots of money and hang out with people he doesn't know probably isn't the best date ;-) She felt frustrated that he didn't hold her hand, and the brothers didn't know what to think of him. That night, they all went to the temple with the Mechams, and Gordon mentioned to Glo that he hadn't been to the temple in a really long time. Also a strike against him.
To both of their credit though, they kept at it. Once they kissed, Gordon wanted to tell everyone that Glo was his girlfriend, including their DND group, but Glo wanted to keep it private until she was sure that she wanted to date him seriously. He had some things he needed to learn like how to "woo" her, a big one for a guy whose family doesn't really do anything special ever. And she needed to know that he would listen to her--that's a big quality for any person who dates Glo. They started dating regularly, and I looked forward to the very late-night phone calls from Glo when she would debrief about the dates (Glo: "his lips are so dry" Me: "buy him some Burt's Bees"). Gordon hadn't ever seriously dated anyone, so he wasn't always the most knowledgeable or the smoothest of daters, but Glo saw possibility. And that's all he needed. Unbeknownst to him, he left Glo wanting more most nights as he ran into the house after a quick kiss ;-)
One major hurdle for Glo was that Gordon didn't own a car and couldn't drive anywhere. So for every date, Glo had to pick up Gordon and take him home. She didn't like that at all.
In October, Glo asked the DND group if they wanted to go to the Haunted Ski Lift at Sundance. Liv, Glo's and Gordon's best friend in the group, was the only one who came along. Glo came prepared with blankets, so under the blanket, sitting next to Gordon on the ski lift, Glo reached out for his hand and held it unbeknownst to Liv ;-) Glo had given Gordon a date of November 12--that's when she would decide if she wanted to seriously date him and when he could start telling people that they were dating if she did. He held to his part of the bargain, keeping it all under wraps even though I'm sure he was secretly dying inside!
Around this time, Gordon started applying for jobs as an actuary. He got a good job offer from a company called Mercer in Phoenix. He went to Glo and asked her if he should take the job. Glo reached out to her brothers to figure out what to say--she didn't want to determine his job future if she didn't see a future with him--and they gave her excellent advice. Just tell him you're happy for him and let him make his own decision. He decided to take the job, beginning in June, 2023.
Finally, she figured out that she did want to date him seriously, and she let him know that he could tell people. Unfortunately, there had been a falling out with the DM of their DND group (Ben) thanks to a bit of a confrontation with Glo, and it was a hard loss for everyone, especially Gordon. But to Gordon's credit, he stuck by Glo which spoke volumes to her. I asked her if she wanted to bring Gordon home for Christmas, and she said she did. I bought a ticket for him.
At this point, I take a paragraph from a post I wrote after Christmas:
I bring up, yet again, how it takes a village to raise a child. Back in November, when I played organ for the temple worker devotional, Glo came with me because John was on call. We ran into Brother Pabst, and he double checked about the temple sealing. I had mentioned that Glo's boyfriend would be in town and Glo wasn't sure if she wanted to bring him or not. After all, it's a BIG DEAL to kneel across the altar from a boyfriend (excuse me, MANfriend). I will never forget the moment in the gym of the Bloomfield Hills building when Brother Pabst looked at Glo and told her to not think that hard about it. "Bring him," he said in his booming voice, "and either you'll know he's the one, or you'll know he's not." He said much more in that five minutes, and Glo really just opened up to him about her fears. I was so thankful. A couple of days later, she told me that she wanted to bring Gordon to the temple.
Gordon left our home on Christmas Eve and flew to St. George to be with his family. A couple of days later, he took the bus back up to Provo. When Glo flew back to Provo, she saw him the night she got in, but all was not perfect in paradise.
The next month proved to be a testing ground for their relationship. I didn't know what would happen, but I do know that neither Glo nor Gordon was willing to give up. There were so many trips to the temple, and prayers offered, and conversations, all trying to figure out what was the best thing to happen. But in that time, both Glo and Gordon came to know their Savior better and learned (again) the importance of the Atonement. And I admit that it was very moving, in my own way, to be praying for them and to hear and know the spiritual lessons they were learning.
But you know what? The Savior stepped up in proportion to their faith. By Valentine's Day, they had weathered the storm, and it was obvious that Glo was falling in love (as Glo said all along, "Gordon would marry me tomorrow"). He was regularly giving her flowers and taking her out on fun dates, but it was so much deeper for Glo. She had received an answer that he was the one, and she began to open her heart to him.
By March, Glo was insisting that she get to meet his grandparents who live in Midway, Utah. It just so happened, that Kelly Rae (the fiancé of Gordon's brother) was taking out her endowments. The four of them had gone on several double dates, and she and Glo were fast becoming good friends. Kellie Rae wanted Glo to come to her own endowment session where Glo would be meeting ALL of Gordon's immediate family. Glo never EVER backs away from a challenge, and soon enough, she was driving Gordon and herself to his grandparents' home to then go onto Ogden for the session.
Glo was smitten with them immediately. "Grandma Jean" packed salami and cheese and crackers in the car, and Glo ended up talking to both of them on the drive up AND down. She had come prepared with flowers and a card for Kellie Rae that she offered to everyone to sign when someone saw that she had one. And in that moment, somebody said, "Glo, this is why we need you in our family. You think of things like this." Many of Kellie Rae's family members live in Northern California where Glo served her mission, and she actually met up with two hermanas from her mission! People wanted to sit by her and talk to her, and she felt loved all around.
When the four drove back to Midway, Glo was overwhelmed. She had finally had the feelings of extended family who cares about her. She got out of the car and told herself that she just needed to say "thank you" and leave (knowing that tears were close to the surface), but as soon as she opened her mouth, she started weeping in front of Grandpa Gordon. She told them how nice it had been to have grandparents who care, and she couldn't believe that they cared about her. At this point, Grandma Jean took Gordon inside for a minute, and Grandpa Gordon told Glo that they had been taking Gordon's name to the temple every week for years and that they had been praying for her to come along. He hugged her and she hugged him, and for once, Glo was vulnerable. When Gordon came back out, Grandpa Gordon handed him the keys to a car and told him it was all his because he had spent the past three years asking for no money and selling his plasma and teaching all kinds of review sessions to support himself. Grandpa Gordon told Gordon that he had earned it.
At this point, Glo knew she wanted Gordon and all that he had to offer. And this is when Life had to be worked out. Glo was leaving for Spain for two months in two months, Gordon was leaving for Phoenix in a month, and Glo still has a year left of school. She reached out to one of her professors, asking if it would be possible for her to student teach in Phoenix starting in January. She explained that her boyfriend was moving there, but when pressed further, she didn't do a great job really pushing what she wanted. In her mind, she knew that she needed to be engaged for anyone at BYU to take her request seriously.
She came home in March for Celebration of the Egg, and I suggested that we go ring shopping. She had thought about going back in January, but we hadn't made it happen. So we went shopping one afternoon. She only wanted to shop at Novi Jewelers, but I suggested we start more bargain basement at the mall. Nothing really. So we went to Novi. Erica, the owner and our friend, spent a good 90 minutes with us, bringing out individual packets of diamonds for us to put into different settings. It was kind of magical seeing what Glo wanted. Her two favorites were a $16,000 ring and another ring, price unknown. We had been taking pictures all day, and we took pictures of those as well.
Glo went back to school, hoping that at some point Gordon would propose. Meanwhile John told me that Costco had rings as well, and seeing that Gordon had put Glo on his Costco membership, the idea of her having a Costco ring seemed kind of cute. I looked and found one that could work, although it was in the same price range as Novi Jewelers and wasn't as pretty.
I think with most young people nowadays, they need a wingman to propose. Either a best friend, or a sibling, or someone who will help them figure out what is best. In a sense, I became that wingman for Gordon. I had gone out to a birthday lunch with Sisters Starr and Jones (from the temple) and when they once again asked about Glo and Gordon, I told them that Glo had gone to look at rings. Both of them then told me that I needed to call Gordon and tell him that. I hesitated, because I certainly didn't want to push Gordon to do something that he didn't want to do, but on the drive home from the restaurant, I took a deep breath and called him. I talked about inconsequential things for a while and then told him that she had gone ring shopping.
Gordon: "Really?"
I then told him that if he wanted to propose, I could help him with the ring. He told me that he would need all the help I could give him because he knew nothing about it. He had class so I started texting him all the information about choosing a ring. Two days later, he called me and told me that he wanted to buy one.
I left it up to him to decide which ring he wanted to buy. He had several to choose from including the $16,000 one which he was willing to purchase. He told me that if that was the ring Glo wanted, he would buy it, but it would postpone them buying a house for a couple of years. I told him that she didn't need that expensive of a ring, but I thought she would like the other ring from Novi Jewelers. He decided that it was the one he was going to get, and he called Erica himself.
John, the master jewelry buyer, headed to Novi Jewelers a couple of days later. Turns out, the setting on the unknown ring was $3,500 (without the main diamond). Erica told us that she would throw in the main diamond for free (0.3 carats). Daddy asked if she would also come down on the price which she did by $500. All weekend, John was thinking about that ring and headed back on Monday morning to ask her to put a bigger center diamond in...which she did (0.5 carats) and didn't raise the price of the ring.
All in all, the ring should've cost $4,500, but John got it for $3,000. Gordon paid cash for it which is really a stellar quality about him. I picked it up after it was sized down to her tiny ring size of 4.5, and Erica helped me package and send it via UPS to Gordon in Provo. Then it was just a matter of waiting.
Gordon ended up calling me after he got the ring and ran a few proposal ideas by me. In the end, he took her to Thanksgiving Point for their annual tulip festival. Their seven month DATING anniversary was the day before so Glo had bought Gordon a new Cotopaxi fleece jacket which he ended up wearing. Glo was all in for the scavenger hunt of finding the wooden clogs throughout the park, but at one point, she turned around and he was down on one knee, asking her if she would marry him. Her reaction? "No way..." Recounting this story to us later, she didn't even know if she had said "yes" ;-) And afterwards, she had to finish finding the clogs which Gordon thought was cute and funny. That evening, she sent John and me a text with a picture of her and Gordon and the caption, "Notice anything new?" I shrieked for joy and called her right away to hear all the details.
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