Part Nine: A day at the Beach

The weeks went by and my impatience grew. Scott made the wise decision to have me stay in town and not move to San Luis in the fall. As a way to save money he said.

Right, like I knew how to save money back then.

Scott and I drove down to Azusa to move my cousin home with me for the summer. She and I were mere weeks away from flying from LA to Prague to surprise her sister who was graduating from high school and to spend two amazing weeks in my Prague with her family. Our trip was growing closer and closer and still no ring. To say I was okay and patient would be an out right lie.

For mothers day weekend, which also happens to be my mom’s birthday, my parents drove me over to the coast for the weekend. I don’t know why I wasn’t more suspicious, but I really was oblivious. They used the excuse that they wanted to spend more time with us as a couple, and to get to know Scott better as a future son-in-law and not just their sons’ high school friend. We went and hit a bucket of balls together and had dinner together and then they went to their nice, comfy, bed and breakfast and I went and stayed in Pismo with Scott. To sleep in a room that smelled like dude. The next morning Scott woke me up and said “Lets go to the beach.”

I yawned and said okay and to give me a minute to get my suit on.

He said, “don’t you want to take a shower and get ready first?”

No, I thought, but I did anyways. As I was in the shower it hit me.

Oh. My. Gosh. Was he going to propose to me? Why would he make me take a shower to go to the beach? It’s a block away? Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh. Okay, stay calm, don’t get your hopes up, you don’t want to be disappointed if it doesn’t happen.

I get out of the shower, shaking as I hurriedly put on a little make-up and announced I was ready.

He led me to his car.

“Why are we driving? It’s only a block away?”

I thought maybe we could go to Cayucos, then we could eat at Skippers for lunch.”

“okay”. I gulped.

I don’t think we said one word to each other the whole drive.

My best friend Rebekah called me asked me what I was up to. I said nothing. We were sort of on the outs at that time and it was a little weird she was calling me. After exchanging pleasantries we hung up.

And the driving in silence continued.

We pulled off onto a section of the Cayucos beach I had never gone to before. As we got out of the car, he held my hand and led me out on to the beach. It wasn’t until we were half way down the beach that I realized he was carrying a picnic basket. My heart started beating over-time.

He picked a spot and laid down a blanket and then we sat down facing each other with that picnic basket in between us; the picnic basket to end all picnic baskets. He opened it, with the basket facing him so I couldn’t see anything and handed me this.

I would love to write all that he said. But sadly, it’s all a blur. I don’t remember his exact words, only that he told me he loved me; that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.

Then he gave me this.

I do remember the very first thought in my head was that it wasn’t a square diamond. But like a half a second later I saw the detail in the ring. And then Scott explained that it was his grandmothers’ ring. That he had to put a diamond in it because they never could afford a diamond. That there was a matching band that went with it. I loved it. I absolutely adored it. I loved that it was old. That it meant something. That it had served as his grandma’s ring for their entire marriage. I just loved it.

I started to get teary, and in an effort to keep from “squirting” (what he calls it when a man cries) himself, he quickly moved on.

He went on to say how much he loved that God had been the center of our relationship. He loved who I was as a believer in Christ and that he knew with God as the head of our marriage, we had an unshakable foundation. And he handed me a box wrapped in pink barbie paper. I opened it to discover a bible, with my new name, Lorie Beth Chambless, written on the cover in gold. I ran my finger over those words. My new name. And then I really started to get emotional.


In a final effort to keep us from becoming blubbering idiots on the beach he handed me one final box, also wrapped in pink barbie paper. I knew the shape of that box. And I could only guess what would be inside. And I was right.

They're now a little on the worn side.

A long time ago, when we first started our relationship Scott mentioned his ideals for a perfect woman. They were mostly silly, but one of the ones that stuck out was that she had to own and look cute wearing a pair of Converse, his shoe of choice. So it was only fitting that I had my first pair, and in red, my signature color.

We sat there marveling at what had just happened. How our lives were never going to be the same. I called my parents and he called his. Then I called Colleen. She had made me promise to make her one of my first phone calls because she and Brad lived so far away and she didn’t want to be out of the loop.But mostly we just held each other. We laid on the beach, wrapped in each others arms, soaking in the moment, knowing that it was just a matter of time before we would never have to say good bye again.

But little did I know, the day would only get better.