Sometimes at Marlborough, days seem like months and weeks seem like years. Let’s face it: we spend a lot of time here, and we spend a lot of time with each other. Maybe you know your teacher’s spouse’s name. Maybe you know how many kids he has or what her pets’ names are. But haven’t you wondered more? Haven’t you wondered how your teachers decided to say “I do”?
Dr. Cottingham: You never would have guessed it, but this teacher had to care for her husband right after he proposed.
It was the night before their one-year anniversary and English instructor Reid Cottingham and her boyfriend, Paul, went out for dinner with a few friends. They got home late, and Cottingham was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. Just as she started to drift off, Paul nervously stated that they “had to exchange anniversary gifts right now!” Unfortunately for Cottingham, this is exactly what she did not want to hear; sleep was the only thing that truly appealed to her at that moment. After finally convincing her, Paul reached under the bed and pulled out a ring. Immediately after she accepted, Paul turned white and starting hyperventilating. The first thing Cottingham did as an engaged woman was nurse her fiancé back to health.
Mrs. DePriest: College counselor Monica DePriest was not her usual sweet self the day her boyfriend proposed.
Back when DePreist worked in admissions at Occidental College, she had to fly up to the Bay Area for college-related work. Though the trip was less than 24 hours long, her boyfriend insisted that he fly up with her. Once up there, DePriest had an awful day and only wanted to go back to her hotel. When she got there, her boyfriend wanted to go out for a nice, formal dinner, but she just was not feeling up to it. Tired, cranky and perhaps a little annoyed, DePriest got ready for bed but stepped out of the bathroom to see her boyfriend on one knee, ring in hand. “I started to cry. This poor man wants to marry me and I haven’t treated him well today!” DePriest said, reminiscing.
Ms. Ahn: You know her as the cheery College Counseling Assistant and, of course, as history and social sciences instructor Tom Millar’s wife.
Millar often makes Ahn creative little cards and notes, and on the night he proposed Millar handed Ahn a crossword puzzle that he had made himself. As she solved the puzzle, Ahn noticed a love theme. When she finished, she had a pretty good idea of what was coming next: a ring.
Mrs. Garrison Ross: When Science Department Head Jennifer Garrison Ross and her boyfriend, Darren, went to New York, she did not think he was going to propose, let alone propose while they were on The Today Show.
The couple woke up early in the morning to stand outside where the show is filmed in freezing weather. Garrison was cold and tired and wanted to go into the nearby coffee shop to wait for Darren, but he insisted that she stay. Then weatherman Willard Scott came over to chat. Scott asked Darren how he was, to which he replied how happy he was to be with his girlfriend and got down on one knee to propose. As it turns out, both their families knew to watch the show that morning to see the proposal. The funniest part, as Garrison recalls, is that they were recognized by some Today fans when they were walking around in the city later that day.
Mr. Thompson: English instructor Chris Thompson and his girlfriend, Susan, went out to buy crabs to cook that night for dinner.
First, the crabs got loose on the New York subway, creating a ruckus for commuters trying to get home and breaking the unspoken rule of silence on the train. After cooking the crabs and listening to the horrific sound of their claws against the cooking pot, Thompson and Susan proceeded to have dinner. As they were finishing up, Susan’s cat jumped onto the table, splattering crab parts all over the couple. “It was terrible enough to be utterly hilarious,” Thompson said. He proposed right after this messy moment, knowing that if they could get through a homemade crab dinner, they could get through everything else.
