Most future sons-in-law spend at least a little time wondering how to make a good impression. Some arrive with flowers. Some volunteer to do the washing up. Some attempt the delicate art of laughing at their future father-in-law's jokes. One young man recently went the extra mile and learned an entirely new language.
Before proposing to the woman he loved, he wanted to ask her parents for their blessing -- we're loving that little bit of convention! However, her mother and father are deaf and communicate through sign language, so rather than relying on an interpreter, he spent months learning to sign so that he could have the conversation himself.
It's a detail that reveals an extraordinary amount about a person. Not because learning sign language is impossible, but because it would have been so easy not to.
Nobody would have criticized him for using a translator, or just even writing down his request. Yet he clearly felt that if he were going to ask such an important question, then her parents deserved to hear it directly from him. One hand gesture at a time.
When the moment finally arrives, as you can see in the video, the reaction is impossible not to enjoy.
As he begins signing, her parents realize what is happening and their faces light up. The blessing is warmly given, the excitement is immediate, and before long they are eagerly examining the engagement ring with the sort of enthusiasm that seems to unite parents across every language, culture, and generation.
While the young man may have spent months preparing a heartfelt request in sign language, once the blessing had been granted, it all becomes about the jewelry. And that's where the surprise continues.
Engraved inside are the words "I love you" in sign language, a detail so thoughtful that it somehow manages to make an already romantic story even sweeter. After all, it is a lovely way of bringing the future bride's parents into the story, and of using a language that she is obviously so familiar with, too.
For all the elaborate proposal stories that circulate online, there is something rather lovely about one that begins with three people sitting at a table, and the grand gesture is all in the tiny gestures coming from the future groom's hands!
