Butches Around The World Will Weep

I had such a wonderful birthday with friends calling, texting and emailing their birthday wishes, that I'd almost forgotten about the presents waiting for me at home from my love.

When I drive up, she is still outside, sweaty from working on the landscaping. She walks in, hugs and kisses me and wishes me Happy Birthday for the fourth time.

Three presents WRAPPED (this is an achievement in and of itself!) sit on the chair beside the couch. One small, one medium, one large.

The medium one was first. It's a gorgeous wooden platter with two matching wooden bowls. A gift from her mother. They were shopping back in the Spring and had found it while on a family trip to Florida. My goodness, these people plan ahead!

I open the smallest package to find a pair of diamond earrings. Mmm...perfect! I love earrings! She knew she couldn't go wrong there!

For the largest, she asks that I sit down on the couch. I unwrap the box to find a large gift bag with tons of paper.

I pull out a mound of paper to find another gift bag, only smaller, stuffed with more paper and a card. She grabs the card and tells me it's not time yet.

Yet another bag is inside this bag. But it's tiny.

She tells me to wait and hands me the card. Inside, it says:

Remember Boothbay?

As I reach into the tiny bag, I know that it's a ring box. I worked in a jewelry store in college. Nothing else is shaped like that box. I open the box to find a gold ring.



I look up and she's on her knee to my right holding my grandmother's diamond ring that I never wear.

It fits perfectly into the gold jacket that she had made to match hers that holds her grandmother's diamond ring.

"Will you spend your life with me as my partner?"

I nodded as I buried my face into her neck.