photo by Bema Photography

 Pam DaCosta and Jeff Percival's Love Story

I would like to share our engagement story with you......

Our residency for Canada came through in March 2009 (Pam is from England), so we were really excited to finally be able to go over the bridge to USA for a day trip. Jeff arranged to borrow his dad's van and he,  his friend John, his son Andrew, my two girls Lucie and April and myself, arranged to go over on 4th April 2009.  Jeff was a bit sluggish on the morning, dragging his feet about what time we were setting off, me and the girls were getting really fed up about it, we wanted to go!!!  He then decided he had to go and get his hair cut, which really annoyed me as we sat fuming at home waiting to go!

Unbeknown to me..... Jeff was phoning my brother in England to get his permission to ask me to marry him (as both my mom and dad are not with us any longer). He was getting flowers to Paul (a friend of his) and the ring and manicure gift certificates!  ( I had always said that if he was going to ask me to marry him could he give me time to get my nails done so my fingers looked good for the ring!!!)

So we finally set off, we had a two hour wait at the border to get our I94's done, which didn't bother Jeff, which I was quite surprised at, then finally we went and shopped!  We went and had a lovely meal then drove along the other side of the water front.  I remember making a comment about how funny it would have been to see Marry Me on the Canadian side as we looked across and Jeff just laughed! 

Then it seemed like we HAD to be going back across the bridge, so we all got back in the van and started back across, Jeff was getting a bit agitated about something but I didn't know what! As we got to our side of the border and our friend Paul (who is a guard) came over to us, he spoke very quietly to Jeff and I thought Jeff had asked if he wanted to go for a coffee with us or something.  Jeff seemed very unhappy when we left the bridge, and when we got home to his moms, he was very quiet.  So I went to put the kettle on to make a cuppa, I had my back to him and asked him if everything was ok? When I turned round he was on one knee with the ring box in his hand!

Apparently he had arranged with Paul at the bridge to pull us over and say my paper work was not in order, and that we had to go in for more questions, then they were going to take us in and find the letter (with the manicure gift certificates inside ) and ask me what it was all about, then turn to Jeff and ask him if he had anything to declare, THEN he was meant to go down on one knee and declare his love for me and ask me to marry him. Paul would then bring out the flowers.  Everybody working at the bridge that night was in on it, apart from the idiot who decided to bring a hand grenade through customs in the boot (trunk) of his car and put the bridge on a security alert!!!!  The alert stopped all Jeff's plans altogether.

But the end result was what he wanted he asked me to marry him and I said yes!  Our wedding will take place on  August 14th 2010.