Asking Dad's Permission

Moe and I just sort of slipped into planning for our future together. There was never a definite moment when he said, “shall we get married,” or a time when I asked, “are we a couple now?” we just were. Still, Moe wanted to do things right, the old fashioned way, and for him that included asking my parents for their permission and not being officially engaged until he had an engagement ring.

Since Mom and Dad were in Germany on a mission, it wasn't that simple to ask Dad for my hand. Of course, I'd been writing to them constantly about Moe, telling them we were talking about getting married. Still,  it took some planning to find a time when Moe and I could get together at Moe's house (because he was determined to make the long distance call and pay for it from his own phone) at a time when Mom and Dad would be available and near a phone over in Germany. (Germany is 8 hours ahead of Arizona time.)

We finally determined to call them on Friday evening after Moe got through with his shift at the Temple.  That made it almost 11:00 pm our time, and 7:00 am theirs. Moe was nervous that night when he picked me up and we drove over his house. He'd never talked to my parents before. Also, it was the first time I'd been to his house, and perhaps he was nervous about that. I suppose it was about what I'd expected. After all, he'd been a bachelor with grown sons for many years, so I wasn't expecting a cute, well decorated house. Still, he'd worked hard to make a small den/office for himself, complete with wood paneling, a roll top desk, and all his scriptures and church books as well as a phone and computer.

He had me sit in the desk chair, while he stood next to me as I dialed Mom and Dad's number. I hadn't talked to them much on the phone while they'd been gone, so I was excited to hear their voices, as well as excited to tell to them about our plans.

“Brother Russell,” Moe began in a slightly nervous sounding tremor when Dad answered the phone, “Gale and I were hoping we could talk to you and Sister Russell about something really important.”

I could tell Dad must have said OK, and I imagined he had Mom standing next to him, all the way on the other side of the world, their heads next to each other as they both tried to listen to the phone. “Ummmm, well...... we wanted to tell you, I mean, we wanted to ask you if it would be alright if we got married? I mean, I wanted, sir, to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage?”

Poor Moe. He sounded just as nervous as if he'd been a 20 year old kid instead of a 48 year old man. Then his face relaxed, he grinned, and I knew Dad and Mom were doing their gracious best to make Moe feel at ease. He talked and listened for a minute more, then handed me the phone with a big smile. “They say, Yes!” he whispered happily, so we were officially OK to go ahead and plan on getting married. Of course, we still had to talk to the kids, although they knew what was going on better than we did, get a ring, and then Moe wanted to actually propose before we were officially engaged. But we were getting there.