MARRIAGE PROPOSALS happen in all sorts of unlikely places – even during a writing class at Mt. San Antonio College.

Teacher Elizabeth Casian had stepped out to make photocopies one
day last week when she ran into a nervous young man whom she remembered
as the boyfriend of one of her students.

Ivan Morales, who is from Barcelona, told Casian in Spanish
that he was going to propose to student Araceli Alvarez. He patted the
engagement ring in his shirt pocket.

“For some reason I covered my mouth in disbelief, as if he
were asking me,” Casian confided later. She agreed to translate Morales’
Spanish into English.

When Casian returned to her classroom, Alvarez raised her hand
to ask a question. As Casian walked over to answer her, Morales entered
the room.

“She notices him and gets this puzzled look on her face,” Casian related.

“Then he starts to say how he has come from afar, has crossed
many rivers and an ocean, how he is a simple man, and how he wanted to
ask for her hand in marriage, while presenting her with the ring.”

Students gasped, then applauded when Alvarez accepted Morales’ proposal and the couple kissed.

“The men quickly went back to their compositions,” Casian
said, “while the women chattered away about how sweet the whole thing
was.”