Suddenly I was as nervous as I had ever been in my life. Every fear I could imagine piled up on me. "Would she say no? Would she be embarrassed? Would she think that I am just a kid with delusional fantasies? Was I crazy?"

I stood up suddenly and my knees were shaking. I walked around my mother's chair with her looking at me strangely. Then I dropped to my knee and I pulled the ring box out of my pocket and almost dropped it as I tried to open it. I took her hand.

I heard my mother gasp when she realized what I was about to do....