Category Archives: Getting Engaged

…and now the e-proposal

Just got an e-mail from Facebook with the subject heading:

Terry A Crain said that you two are engaged…

and the text:

Terry said on Facebook that you two are engaged. We need you to confirm that you are, in fact, engaged to Terry.

To confirm this relationship request, follow the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/n/?home.php

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

I clicked on the “confirm this relationship request” link, so I guess it’s e-official now.

facebook shot

At least it is with our Facebook friends!

Our First Love Poem Published!

Last December, Terry and I had an impulsive weekend in NY, a “Tryst” according to our hostess and poet Susan Kumar! It was that weekend at Lincoln Center after the opera when Terry proposed to me. Susan, whose poetry has been published in the e-zine Ampersand, wrote the poem “Winter Tryst” for us about that weekend. We just received word from her today that it has been published in an Indian poetry e-zine, Kritya. (Here’s more information about Kritya.)

How cool is that? To have a poem written about your love published online by someone on the other side of the world?

Thank you Susan!

A poem by Susan Kumar

Winter Tryst

Two love birds nesting in our guest room
Emerging once or twice refreshed
Meshing lives, humor and cooing credits
Mixing drinks of elixir and caffeine
As they weave through night’s lights
Together, one body filled with heart.

A woman held high by this man
Awed by her open arms and bright eyed
Laugh, tinged deeply with long searching.
A man remarkable and immediate
Reverberating with organ chords of love
Beyond her vision and yet tall as her way
Makes room everywhere for her light.

Trysting here midwinter with their own warmth
Gift-wrapping round Lincoln Center’s holiday tree
A ring brilliant in diamond hue, platinum shining
Through intentions made known post-Prokofiev.
These scenes hallowed true way beyond
All our anticipations, this magic could not be created
Without love, divine, intelligent to their design.

To my Mason-Parker Family members

[Posted on our My Family web site]

Subject: Taylor Willingham is getting married

Yeah, that’s quite a shocker, I know. But after being single for almost three decades, I’ve found someone I want to be with for the rest of my life. I found Terry Crain online, but that’s not where we met. That’s just how we found each other thirty-three years after we graduated from high school in Florida and went separate ways – me to California and he to northern Michigan. (Who do you think made the wiser move?) But I reconnected with him during my research on democracy and social networking when I joined a network for high school classmates and discovered that he had been looking for me for two years. I called him last July and over the past six months we have met in Chicago (saw the opera “La Traviata”), Texas, Michigan, New York (where he proposed to me at Lincoln Center under the Christmas Tree after the opera “War and Peace”), and again in Texas where I finally accepted his proposal.)

I was editor of the high school yearbook and he was the photographer so we spent many hours in the dark room. (These poor kids growing up in the digital age are really missing out!) He had a crush on me, but I was dating someone from another school. Still, I must have felt some fondness for him even then because it really isn’t necessary for the editor to follow the photographer around the sidelines at every football game and then spend hours with him “developing” things in the dark room. Obviously I enjoyed his company and look forward to making up for losing the last 33 years.

At age 50, we are like teenagers – silly, romantic, technologically connected, (speaking of which, my 11 year old niece is sending me ichats as I write this!), and starry-eyed. But we also have the wisdom, patience, and resources of 50 year olds! My 50th year has been fabulous – I love being 50 and don’t know why it’s supposed to be so traumatic. It just makes sense that this is the right time for me to find someone right for me and for me to BE right for someone.

So, if you’re waiting for a wedding date, I hate to disappoint you, but since we are waiting to sell his house and don’t want to waste any time, we probably won’t have a wedding…just a small affair with the folks, Brent and Terri and Ben and Becca. At our age, we don’t need all of the pomp, I’m too busy to be in the event planning business, and we absolutely DO NOT want any gifts – we’re holding garage sales in two states to get rid of excess stuff. We have lots we want to do the house and we want to travel some so he can meet my relatives and California friends. Then we’ll throw lots of parties to celebrate.

Terry Proposes

Terry and Taylor after operaTerry proposed to me at Lincoln Center in NY City after the opera. It was very romantic. Too bad I got tongue tied and all I could say was, “I’m not sure.” I DID promise that I would tell him when I was ready to say, “yes” and promised that eventually I would.

Fortunately, he did not give up on me and three weeks later on New Year’s Day as we stood beside a pond by my house, I turned to him and said, “My answer is ‘yes’.”

Taylor

Hello world!

Welcome to our first combined techy effort as a newly engaged couple. We invite all our friends and family to join us in planning our lives together. We are asking you , the viewers, to add your comments, stories and memories to this blog.

Taylor and Terry