Gabby_ A Story of Courage and Hope - Alison Hanson [19]
One morning during that mission, Gabby was given the opportunity to choose my crew’s wake-up song, and she selected “Beautiful Day” by one of her favorite bands, U2. I didn’t know it, but she was hoping that, after almost two years of dating, I’d surprise her by calling down from space and asking her to marry me. “I want the whole world to know about us,” she told her mom. The mission lasted twelve days, and day after day, Gabby waited for me to make my move. But, as she complained to her mother, I just kept circling the planet, oblivious.
I knew she wanted to get engaged, but I had no idea she wanted a big public proposal. Maybe she had given me hints and I was too dense to pick up on them. When I came home, after traveling 5.28 million miles and orbiting the Earth 202 times, she was glad to see me, but not as glad as she would have been if I’d had a ring with me.
One day not long after I’d returned, Gabby called. “We need to talk,” she said.
From the tone of her voice, I knew the exact topic. She got right to the point.
“Look,” she said. “I’m thirty-six years old and we’ve been dating two years. This relationship of ours will go either one way or the other, and I’m not waiting around.”
I felt a need to reveal myself. “I’ve got a plan.”
“A plan?” she said. “What does that mean, a plan?”
I couldn’t keep the secret any longer. I figured she wanted to know, so I’d tell her. “I’ve already bought a ring.”
She didn’t seem at all happy to hear the news. “Why did you tell me that?” she said. “Now you’ve ruined it!”
At least I didn’t tell her when I’d be giving it to her.
About a month later, in September 2006, Gabby had to be in New York for a couple of fund-raisers. The same day, I was invited to give a speech at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, my alma mater, in Kings Point, New York. I asked Gabby to join me at the academy between her appearances.
We stood in the academy’s main square, alongside the famous fountain that surrounds a flagpole. This was the spot where I used to come before big tests when I was a student. By tradition, students toss coins there for good luck. There’s a little conch shell in the fountain, which sits at the base of a sculpture of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. We’d always aim to land our coin in that shell, which supposedly brings extra luck.
“OK, watch this,” I said to Gabby. “There’s something I want to show you.”
I tossed a coin about fifteen feet toward the conch shell—and it went in! “That means we’re destined to have good luck,” I told Gabby. She smiled at my skill. Hey, I could lasso two and a half cows. I could toss a coin exactly where it needed to go. Did I have anything else in my bag of tricks?
I did.
I had already called Gabby’s father to ask for her hand in marriage. Now the moment had come. I didn’t get down on one knee. I thought that would be too corny for a thirty-six-year-old woman and her forty-two-year-old boyfriend. But I did speak from the heart.
“Gabby,” I said. “You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she said, “absolutely.” She was a little teary as I handed her a one-carat, round-diamond engagement ring. She slipped it on her finger.
I thought this was a nicer way to propose than me being up in space, popping the question and then hoping I’d make it back OK to live out our lives together. This way, Gabby and I could share a brief, private kiss behind the fountain, and then rush off together to New York City for her event. We didn’t really know anyone at the fund-raiser, and as we mingled, we kept our engagement as our own little secret. That was romantic, too.
Gabby would have that engagement ring for four and a half years. Because she was wearing it the day she was shot,