Henry's Proposal
The Flower Box
by Henry Lubong

"The 17th point of 17-mile on the 17th day"

In the morning of March 17, 2004, a minute just passed the midnight, I woke up with an annoying beep, I got a text message. It was from Henry. "Happy birthday babe. I love you!" I just finished reading the message when my cell phone rang. The first words that I heard were "Happy Birthday." Henry was on the other line and waited until 12am to be the first one to greet me on my birthday. It was so sweet and feels very romancing although he's been doing that for years now.

He said he's going take a half day off from work so he can take me to a nice restaurant in 17 Mile Drive in Monterey. Little did I know, he has a much more bigger plan that day.

Knowing him, I'm sure he's gonna do another trick this time. On my previous birthday, he sent me two red roses and I was wondering what happened to the other one. The following day, I found the missing rose in my car.

While I was wating for him to come home, I was thinking if this could be the day. But no, he just gave me a promise ring, which was actually a replacement for another promise ring that I lost. And he's been telling me that the next ring that he would put in my finger is the wedding ring.

Moments later, he's home and seems very excited. He changed clothes and packed some stuff in the trunk of his car. He brought his video cam and his small black bag that he hid in the trunk. The weather was beautiful, just perfect for an afternoon drive on his top-down Z3.

The 17-Mile Drive is a scenic road through Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach, California much of which hugs the Pacific coastline and passes famous golf courses and mansions of the rich and famous. There are 21 drive points along the road. We arrive at the gate at exactly 3:12 pm. Along the way, we stopped at a couple of scenic points and took some pictures and video as well. The scenery is really beautiful and breathtaking.

It was almost 5:oo when we reached the Pebble Beach Golf Links, the 19th scenic point. We were going to check out the place but Henry changed his mind. All of a sudden, he wanted to go back because he wanted to take a video of us at the 17th point before the sunset. I thought that was romantic so we headed back to the same road that we took. He was quiet while looking for the 17th point. We couldn't find where it is! The funny thing is it does exist and the 17th point is just a Ghost tree. So we just went to the next one which is the Pescadero Point. It marks the northern-most point of Carmel Bay and Stillwater Cove. This place is like a small park on a cliff with nice flowers and cypress trees and benches for watching the sunset.

He parked his car and took his video cam out and asked me to go ahead and mount the camera. While I was setting up the tripod, I saw him walked to the trunk of his car and took something out from his bag. I thought it was probably just a video tape. When he was walking towards me, he looked very anxious so I asked him what's wrong. "Nothing, I just thought that the sun would be setting by now," he replied. There were also other people in that place but we managed to shoot a couple of video and pictures. We were there for 15 minutes already but Henry didn't want to leave yet. He said he's waiting for the people to clear out so we can take a nice video shot. But every minute, a car would stop by and people would go out to take some pictures. So we waited and waited until finally, people stopped coming.

The time was now pass 5:30 and the sun was almost setting in front of us. He setup his video cam and he asked me to sit on one of the big rock by the tree and face the ocean. I didn't realize that he was already walking behind towards me to my side. I faced him and then he gave me a red rose. But it's not a real rose, the flower itself is a box. So I opened it and I was strucked with the most beautiful RING sparkling right in front of my eyes. Then he went down on his knee, took the ring from the box, reached for my hand, slowly slid the 3-diamond ring to my finger and asked, "Will you marry me?". Of course I answered YES and tears began falling from my eyes. It's the most wonderful and undescribeable feeling. Then he hugged me and gave me the sweetest kiss ever.

{ what about the video }

Oh yes, what about the video? Apparently, with all those memorable and romantic moments, the video camera was off all the time. He must have pressed the wrong button. I wouldn't blame him if I was in his place anyway. So guess what we did? We re-enacted the whole thing just to get it recorded. But of course, nothing beats the first time!