I was determined to ask Jonanne's mom Alice for Jonanne's hand in marriage...

I picked up the engagement ring in Boston later in the afternoon on July 28, 2017. I then called Alice with a little white lie saying I was "in the area" and would like to stop by to say hello. She agreed that would be fine, so I drove to her house in Arlington. Meanwhile I'm supposed to be taking a boat to the Vineyard to meet Jonanne. I was telling Jonanne that I was helping my Mom with some chores and couldn't make it until a later boat.

At Alice's house we chatted for a while on her back yard swing. After a while I admitted I had another reason for stopping by. So I asked Alice for Jonanne's hand in marriage... and she said yes!

A while later I said goodbye to Alice and frantically made my way to Woods Hole to catch the next possible ferry. I still was making excuses to Jonanne why I was so late including "I'm stuck in traffic" - I think she was getting suspicious but didn't catch on. I finally made one of the later ferries.

I had to wait a whole week keeping it secret...

So on Sunday August 6 Jonanne and I went in to Edgartown as we have often. I persuaded Jonanne that we might find a bite to eat there.

We left Jonannes car by a few blocks, and she said she was a bit chilly. I would always just give her my own jacket which I had over my arm, but I had the engagement ring in the jacket pocket!

Jonanne said she had her sweatshirt in the car, so I went back to get it. She put that on and we made our way down the street looking in various restaurants at the menu. Usually we would find something within a block or two, but tonight none of them were "quite right" for me. I was trying to get her to the Edgartown dock where we had been on our first date.

As we got closer I suggested it was such a nice evening that we should go to the dock. We walked down there, sat next to each other on a bench a talked for a short while.

At just the right moment I turned to her and got down on one knee...

"Jonanne will you marry me?"

"...YES"