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A concrete worker's proposal in 2 bricks

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By Bill Wundram | Sunday, October 21, 2007 1:01 AM CDT | () comments

IN this mad-mad world of war and howling political promises, we can be thankful for the peace of love. There is not enough love.

“We just had a young man propose to his girlfriend at the Vander Veer Botanical Park fountain,” says Natasha Sottos of the Friends of Vander Veer. “What was unique is that it was done in bricks.”

It is a solid-as-stone love story.

Travis Wilkerson-Burwell has been courting Michelle Coronado. A favorite place for the Rock Island couple to walk was around the green pathways of Vander Veer. They would stroll, and then sit in front of the fountain, fascinated to watch its waters rise and fall.

Travis wanted to propose marriage, and being in concrete construction work, he hit upon an appropriate idea.

He would do it in brick.

“I had the name ‘Michelle Burwell’ engraved in a brick. That would be her name if she accepted. Then, I had ‘Marry Me!’ on another brick, to be put alongside the other brick.”

The date of Oct. 1, 2007 was engraved, too, just to make it official for time immemorial.

Travis wanted the bricks placed in the fountain walkway, which has an assortment of bricks engraved with names and memorials and other forms of dedication. But never a wedding proposal. The Friends of Vander Veer followed the wishes of Travis for romantic bricks.

Now, the scheme gets a few more touches of love. Michelle’s two daughters were in on the plan. Jade, 15, helped Travis pick out an engagement ring. Along with her sister, Dreama, 11, they took a walk in the park with the two lovers on this particular day.

Dreama, with the ring in a little silk box, slipped away and put it on the brick that said “Michelle Burwell.”

The two lovers sat down on a metal bench. They were watching the fountain when Michelle pointed and exclaimed:

“Look out there, someone must have lost a little box.”

She walked to the box. There was a sparkling diamond ring inside, on a brick that was engraved: “Michelle Burwell.”

She was stunned. Travis was uneasy. Would she accept this unusual proposal?

“I loved it,” she says.

He dropped to his knee and proposed. He slipped the ring on her third finger, left hand. They kissed.

Travis says, “What really got through to me was that the park people, by coincidence, had placed the two bricks exactly in front of the fountain, right where we like to stand.”

Natasha, of the Friends of Vander Veer, says, “Now their big moment is forever memorialized at the fountain.”

A wedding date has yet to be selected. But it’s a safe bet they will be married right in front in the fountain, with those two bricks in front of them.

Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwundram@qctimes.com.