4 years ago today, Tommy asked me to marry him. It was such a great day, including a scavenger hunt, dinner at a French restaurant, a visit to the Church in which I was baptized, cake & champagne with my family, and a random moment that he and I often reflect on...

The scavenger hunt Tommy set up for me was designed to take me all around town, to important places in my life: my childhood home, the Church where I was baptized, the place I was when we first met

But in between one spot & dinner, we had some time to kill before our reservation

So, with extra time on our hands, we went to Books-A-Million.

I love bookstores, & what better thing to do on the day you get engaged (yes, I suspected he was going to propose later) than buy a book?

So we wandered the aisles, holding hands, reading books jackets...

We made our way to the back of the store, sat down on some comfy chairs, each with a book.

Sitting on a bench, not far from us, was a very odd looking woman.

She was thin, with long hair, wearing tan pants & a tan shirt.

She was crouched on the bench, leaning over a magazine.

We both noticed her, & both thought her outfit was kind of odd, & were thrown by the way she was sitting. No one crouches on a bench like that.

And then, a tall, thin man walks up & sits down next to her, also wearing tan pants & a tan shirt, and they start talking to each other

Tommy & I looked at each other, shrugged, but were both still kind of confused.

“Maybe when you’re old & married, you just wear boring matching outfits,” he whispered to me.

We laughed. And as we laughed, the couple looked up, & stared at us

Smiles broke out across their faces

We smiled back & turned our attention back to our books.

But we knew they were staring at us, the random couple, dressed up, sitting in the back of a bookstore on a Friday.

Tommy stood up a few minutes later, to go find another book. And as he walked off, the man followed him.

When Tommy didn’t come back for a few minutes, I decided to go find him.

Of course, I thought maybe the man was following him to pickpocket him or something (yes, I’m paranoid, I’ve watched too much Dateline).

But as I rounded the corner, they were standing there chatting.

So I turned to go back to my chair, & the lady crouching on the bench, staring down, looked up & said, “You look lovely, Katie. Say yes, okay?”

I was thrown.

How did she know my name? And what the heck did she mean?

Did she know he was proposing? Were they in on it?

I went back to my chair, and sat back down, and when I turned to look over at the lady on the bench, psyching myself up to ask her what she meant, she was gone. Disappeared. She wasn’t there. Just the magazine, open, on the bench.

I was spooked. Confused. What just happened?

Tommy came back a minute later, asked me if I was ready, & grabbed my hand.

As we walked out, we didn’t see the couple. Anywhere. They were not in that store.

And then he told me the guy asked him for a few dollars, told him he looked nice, & told him to have courage.

I told him what the lady told me, and he was confused too. Maybe she heard Tommy say my name? Or maybe she was crazy? That’s all we could figure.

We got back in the car to head to the restaurant, & the radio turned on as he started the car. It was set to the Catholic station.

The voice said “Don’t forget, today is the feast of the Guardian Angels. So pay attention to how they show up in your life! Because they’re always there.”

We looked at each other, and started laughing. Hysterically. Belly laughs. Just so much joy.

Because our guardian angels decided to encourage us both, on the day we were getting engaged, their feast day, by showing up to a bookstore we weren’t planning on going to, wearing boring clothes, to tell us to have courage & say yes.

We often entertain angels unaware...