The Meeting.
It was a Sunday unlike any other Sunday before or hence. It didn't feel any different when I woke up that morning, it didn't even feel different when I went to bed that evening, but it was the day I met her. I went through my Sunday morning routine; get up at 7:30, shower, dress, breakfast, take the 16 down to Granville & 7th, walk to Westside Church about 15 minutes early for the 9:00 service. The sun shone, the birds sang, the sky was clear blue.
"Trevor!!!" Aaron greeted me as I walked through the door. "TheresthisgirlinmycommunitygroupthatracessailboatsandifIseeyouinthesameservicesometimeI'llintroduceyou!"
Aaron spoke excitedly and all his words ran together when he was excited, and he seems to be excited all the time.
"Uhh, great!" I replied, trying to sound enthused.
Truthfully at Westside you meet anywhere between 1 and 10 people each Sunday, and you never remember any of them.
I made my way into the mostly empty sanctuary and sat down by myself, watching it fill up slowly. My friend Kyle joined me, and we chatted. The band started to play. Aaron appeared in front of me with a red-haired woman in tow.
"This is Trevor, he just bought a boat. This is Charmaine, she races sailboats. I've gotta run." Aaron took off leaving us standing face to face awkwardly. Painfully aware that the service had started.
"I'm going to find a seat, and I'll talk to you after." Said Charmaine as she sidled off.
"K." I said.
The service continued, and eventually ended. I leaned over to Kyle and said "I have to find that girl. I can't remember her name. I think she has red hair?"
"Yes?" he replied non-committally.
I looked forward and the red haired woman appeared in front of me.
"I've got to run, but you should come racing with me some time."
We exchanged numbers, I had to get her to spell her name for me. In the end she ran off, leaving me wondering how serious she was about getting me out sailing. I didn't have my hopes up too high.
Just friends.
About a week passed, and I spent most of it trying to figure out how to sail my new boat. I signed up for sailing lessons for the next weekend. Finally my phone buzzed and I found a text from Charmaine inviting me out sailing on Sunday. Disappointed I told her that I was taking a sailing lesson that day, but could I come out another time? She informed me that the boat was leaving for a race around Vancouver island and I had to come out now or wait another month until it returned to its regularly scheduled races.
I opted to wait.
More time passed, until true to her word, one month later I received another text from Charmaine wondering if I could come racing the following Sunday. I accepted.
Sunday arrived, and after church I raced off to the yacht club to go sailing. I sent her a text when I arrived and hoped I would recognize her when I saw her. I went up to the first red-head I saw, and fortunately I had guessed correctly. It was indeed Charmaine.
We chatted during the race, and I invited her to come out on my boat with a number of other friends the following weekend for the festival of lights to watch the fireworks. To my surprise, she accepted my invitation and thus started our friendship outside of racing.
One particular week, racing was cancelled. At that point, I knew I enjoyed hanging around Charmaine, but I wasn't quite sure I wanted to date her. I told her that I had to "pump out my boat" and that if she "missed racing that Sunday she was welcome to join me on my boat for the trip down the river to Captain's Cove Marina" if she liked. I invited her over after work, and after making her dinner we made our trip. She never commented on our activities, but after the fact I was informed that she had no idea that I had never intended for this to be a date, and that she had no idea that "pumping out my boat" meant "emptying the sewage tank".
We like to say that was our first date.
Dating.
It was only a matter of time until we had what kids these days call the "DTR" talk. For you older folk, DTR stands for "Defining The Relationship".
Days turned into weeks. Weeks into months, and eventually we decided that this was the last relationship we wanted to be in. I met up with her father and asked him if he would kindly let me take his daughter's hand in marriage. He said yes.
Engagement.
Charmaine told me she wanted an emerald ring. She wanted a stone with some colour. Everybody else has a diamond, but I like emeralds.
Great. I can do that.
I did some research, and one of the first things I learned was that emeralds make really bad engagement rings. Emeralds are soft enough that they get scratched if you wear them every day. You need to replace the stone every couple years if you want a continually bright stone.
Charmaine then informed me that she would prefer to wear just one ring, and she wanted either a wedding ring or an engagement ring. I suggested to go with the wedding ring because I like the symbol of marriage more than the symbol of engagement.
You would think that this would simplify getting engaged, but you would be wrong. I didn't want to get down on one knee with a flowery speech and present her with nothing. Eventually we agreed that she would wear my engineer's ring which has great significance for me until that time I give her a wedding ring.
I also decided to get her an emerald necklace as icing on the cake. This is really where it gets complicated. I think that one of the biggest reasons diamonds are so expensive is because they are so rare. As it turns out, they're not rare at all. Jewellery stores sell literally tons of diamonds every year, and very few emeralds (or rubies, or sapphires, or...) and therefore they don't stock many emerald necklaces. I didn't like any of the ones I saw in the shops.
Eventually I found one. It was exactly what I had been searching for, so I bought it (after consulting with my sister. She agreed that it was very nice). I was finally ready to propose.
One day I casually mentioned that we should go hiking on Sunday afternoon. Maybe on the North Shore? How does Lynn Peak sound? Great.
Lynn Peak is where we first said "I love you", so it seemed to me as good a place as any to add "...and I want to spend the rest of my life with you" to the end of that sentiment.
Back to the story.
Sunday came, and it was raining.
"This is great!" I told Charmaine, "We'll be the only ones hiking today!"
She seemed to accept my logic, and we set off.
We reached the peak around 2:30 in the afternoon. Neither of us had eaten lunch, so we broke out the food we had brought. Baguette, lunch meats, and Boursin cheese. As we finished eating, all the other hikers who had been up there with us got up and hiked back, leaving us alone.
I wandered off to a flat area with a beautiful view of the dense grey cloud, and Charmaine followed me.
I turned around to look at her, and she looked at me expectantly.
I suddenly realized that she knew exactly what was going on.
She continued to look at me expectantly.
I forgot what I was supposed to do.
I got down on one knee.
Wait, I'm down on two knees? How did that happen?
Ok, fixed it. I'm on one knee now.
"Charmaine" I said. My voice cracked and warbled like I was 13 again, and going through puberty.
"Charmaine, I'm not going to give you a speech. I love you, will you marry me?"
I showed her the ring, and the necklace.
"Yes." She said.
