Marriage Proposal

I’ve been visiting with Nick’s parents in a small town in the Yorkshire area called Brighouse. It is one of those English towns on the canal system where long narrow boats (mostly vacation boats now) can navigate over 2000 miles around England going through various old locks. There’s a path next to it that Nick suggested as a good place to run.

On my first run down the canal, a long boat was navigating through a lock. I helped push one of the gates back into place on one side and was invited for a ride down the canal. Unfortunately I couldn’t take it. They did let me onto the boat for a look while they waited for the water level to rise.

Today I went for my second run. It rained quite hard last night and the path along the canal at one point was flooded about 10 inches deep. There was a stone wall along the left side, curved at the top, that looked like it might be possible to walk across to avoid getting wet. Since I’m clumsy and have a hard time balancing, I wasn’t sure this was a good idea. As I stood there contemplating whether to turn back, wade through, or try walking on the top of the wall, a guy came from the other side with 2 dogs, jumped up on the wall and practically sprinted across. When he got to my side, he started chatting with me, asking where I was from and other such things. Then he suddenly said, “Alright then. Jump up on my back and I’ll carry you across.” I was a bit surprised and protested once, then decided…what the heck. As he carried me across on his back, I said, “I can’t believe you’re doing this! Will you marry me?” He didn’t say yes, but didn’t say no either. When we got to the other side, he introduced himself (Barry, with such a strong accent I could barely understand what he was saying).

Maybe I could marry a Brit after all.