On Christmas day, Rotarian Carey Collingham brought some holiday and engagement cheer to Ponca State Park with his now-fiancee Amy Fischer. His fun and humorous tale of joy is a reminder that amidst this last year of challenges for everyone we can all choose to find ways to celebrate and embrace some levity!"
Through Rotary, we come to deeply value the power and meaning of friendship. On Christmas of this year, I had the indescribable joy of asking my best friend to join me in a lifelong duet otherwise known as marriage. Amy and I met in the Lincoln Civic Orchestra a decade ago and became immediate friends. For years we sat across the orchestra from each other, her as concertmaster, and myself as principal cellist. I suppose after years of being required to maintain eye contact for the sake of bringing our sections together, it is little surprise that we find ourselves looking into each other's eyes anew to bring our lives together. I must confess, however, that Baroque era duets are a little less my style than a good Romantic Humoresque... After taking Amy to visit one of Rotary 14's own local jewelers to select her perfect ring, I'd be remiss to deny that I thoroughly enjoyed a short-lived perpetual state of dropping to a knee to tie my shoe or pick something up off the floor in Amy's presence. Indeed, over the course of our two-day holiday jaunt to Ponca State Park, Amy found herself the recipient of no fewer than three new items of jewelry, each attributable to such tomfoolery. Knowing me well enough to know I would never be so cliché as to propose on Christmas, though, she was a fine sport throughout my charade. And yet, our last afternoon there, it warmed to a balmy 38 degrees, and such December anomalies must not one waste. After a nice hike, we found ourselves overlooking the tri-state border, a view paralleled only by Amy's beauty. So, I could delay no longer. I somehow found it in myself to tie my shoe again, but this time from my camouflage coveralls materialized a beautiful blue box that I knew she would recognize. As I began to utter those four magic words, I slowly rose and began to open the box, propping myself up with the firm support of the tower's railing to steady me, at least physically. As I fumbled to retrieve the tinsel-colored ornament therein, it just so happened that the precious cargo slipped from my fingers on the far side of that railing and took flight. Down, down, into the abyss of the tri-state void sailed a little round metallic display of affection. Somewhere right around the suspended moment in time that it occurred to me, an affirmative response may convert to something else, I announced my brilliant foresight in seeing fit to bring a backup. I dug deep into my pocket to retrieve a handmade box, in which the real emblems of our affection were still safely housed. I began again (notably further from the railing), and this attempt was met with an exuberant affirmative response, though admittedly only after an optimistic-but-skeptical visual inspection of the ring... In the end, Amy and I have a story of laughter and joy, memorialized for now by one little timeless token of our love. And so, it has come to be that Amy and I are excited to embrace 2021 as the year we officially begin composing our lives on the same staff of music together. But why the need for humor and jokes with a proposal--such a profoundly meaningful step in a lifelong journey? Because that is what the world needs more of right now. I am lucky to love a frontline healthcare worker who, like many, has faced one of the hardest years of her life this past year. I am even luckier that she embraces the need for humor and levity, and can laugh at the idea of her beautiful ring taking a dive off the tri-state overlook. So often our lives and emotions, especially in a year like this last, can be controlled by the circumstances surrounding us. I am lucky to have a best friend in Amy, who I know can and does choose to find the joy and the humor in everything she is faced with. I think we all need that, perhaps this year more than most. As for myself, I am just glad I get to call this joyful, funny, and loving person my fiancée. I am confident in the years to come we will return to that overlook, and perhaps make a tradition of hiking down below the observation point to scour the thicket for an elusive and slippery $7 ring. But it is years of laughter that I look forward to most. As for now, my top priority in the year to come is going to be supporting her as she finishes her Doctorate of Nursing Practice program and finds meaningful work serving Lincoln-area patients--so long as such an opportunity allows her to schedule a recurring Tuesday lunch break downtown!
