Mr Anniversary Gift

Not even a rainy day or the emotional darkness forever surrounding Sept. 11 can stop true love.

Just ask Army 1st Lt. Michael Park, a Huntsville, Ala., native, and his new fiancee, Naperville native Aimee Lyn Laz.

Stepping out of the shadows near the Fredenhagen Park gazebo, Park got down on one knee in the reflection of the park's fountain and asked Laz to be his wife.

She said yes.

Now she wears a 1-karat princess cut diamond with a white gold band on her finger.

Laz, 25, a 1999 Naperville Central High School graduate, is a captain in the Army. The couple met in December when stationed at Fort Richardson in Alaska. Their unit, on leave for the moment, will be shipped to Iraq in October, with Park leaving first and Laz soon afterward.

But the focus Monday night was on their future as a couple, with the engagement surprise orchestrated by Laz's best friend, Annie Brown.

Brown, 25, flew to Alabama to help Park pick out the ring and then escorted him back to Naperville earlier Monday, getting in to O'Hare Airport around 6 p.m. after a slight delay. Park, 24, got ready by dressing in a black suit, green shirt and tie at the Browns' house in Naperville.

"We had to check the ring box 50 times," Brown said, adding that Park couldn't help telling people during their travels that he was popping the question. "It's exciting. I love it. They're perfect together."

Brown and Park had been e-mailing for a month, sending pictures of the fountain and setting up an agenda so everything would be just right. Brown's mother, Cindy, was waiting in the bushes with Park, helping make last-minute adjustments to his tie and making sure the red rose surrounded by baby's breath looked just right. She kept a close watch on her cell phone – text messaging was how Cindy Brown kept track of how close to the park Laz was. Cindy Brown's son Tony, 16, taped the whole event.

"We just think he's great," Cindy Brown said. "The first time we met him, (my daughter) and I just looked at each other and said he's the one."

Laz and her parents attended the Sept. 11 memorial ceremony at the Municipal Center before Laz's friends persuaded her to take a walk downtown to Barnes and Noble. Then they helped steer Laz to Fredenhagen Park, where she was understandably overwhelmed by first seeing Park and then by being proposed to.

"I jump out of planes with explosives and I'm not nervous about that," Park said. "Yet I was nervous about this."

Tom Laz, Aimee's father, made a toast to the couple, complete with sparkling grape juice. Also present were Aimee's sisters, 27-year-old Adrienne and 17-year-old Allison, Aimee's mom, Lin, and her grandparents, Stephen and Helen Velichko of Lisle.

"Yeah, I think we like him," Lin Laz said of their future son-in-law. "I was just told to have a red rose for her, and then I made the reservations to go to Lou Malnati's afterward."

That rose caused a bit of a commotion when Lin accidentally got locked out of the house and had to climb through a window to retrieve it.

There were even some laughs – amid a slew of picture taking – as Park pulled out the "backup ring" – a giant gold bracelet with a large fake diamond that Laz could wear on her wrist.

Lin Laz said she knows the day is bittersweet, made even more so because Navy Cmdr. Dan Shanower's father, Don, was her professor in college. Dan Shanower was killed in the attack on the Pentagon.

But events like their daughter's engagement and promotion to the rank of captain are signs that life goes on.

"We're proud of her," Lin Laz said.

source

What a beautiful way to alter the horrible memories of such an overwhelming day to give it a new brightness.  Though I am sure no one would ever forget the events of 9-11-2001 - altering the memory is probably one of the best tributes anyone could give to those who gave their lives that day.

We wish the happy couple a long and prosperous life together!

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