Before we left Ottawa, there was something to take care of first.
The perfect opportunity presented itself during a long weekend away in New York City. Leaving Murphy and Milo with friends, we headed off early Friday morning, flying into La Guardia Airport not one hour’s travel time from the Canadian capital.
Checking in to the Marriott on Times Square, we spent the next couple of days putting our worries about the future aside with a promise to deal with the uncertainty of what lay ahead upon our return to Ottawa.
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| New York City |
I had never been to New York yet I felt a real sense of familiarity from having watched so many great American movies and seen untold iconic images taken from this great city. We ticked off our tourist check list, taking in the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings, Ground Zero, UN Headquarters, Rockefeller Centre, Wall Street and Chinatown. It was too easy to feel overwhelmed by such a place, bursting full of renowned stories and characters, famous streets and suburbs. Three days was never going to be long enough but it somehow felt like a perfect end to our time in this part of the world, finishing on a high in NY.
As the weekend drew to a close, I had one thing left to do. Following dinner at a cosy Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side, we took a horse-drawn carriage around Central Park, before strolling over to the Wollman Ice Skating Rink.
This really was the stuff of Hollywood. As a cold December evening set in, we too our seats in the stands and watched families skate around the rink. I recognised this scene from so many Christmas movies. Wrapped up in our warm winter jackets, we reminisced over the past 18 months of life in the east of Canada, of the friends we had made, opportunities we had taken, and the home we had made for ourselves and our two dogs on Irving Avenue.
We had come to the realisation that we couldn’t stay in Ottawa. We hadn’t acclimatised well to the extreme winter and summer conditions, and knew that, if we didn’t leave soon, we’d become further embedded into the community, finding it harder to leave later on. It was now or never and our minds were finally set.
We could have returned to Vancouver and the forests, ocean and mountains but we needed a clean break and a return to family. England was a serious contender but I was conscious that a return could mean the end of the dream, of this search, and I wasn’t ready to give that up just yet. Then there was Australia. My partner’s home and a location that had always seemed a distant prospect until now. This would be our new home.
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Huddled by that ice rink in the heart of this vast city, we were completely alone. Surrounded by strangers and with family dotted around the globe, we felt at peace with our decision. Safe in the knowledge that we’d come this far together, that we’d made it through thick and thin, that our adventure was set to continue, and that we had each other.
With this at the forefront of my mind, I got down on one knee, took Sarah’s hand in my own, and asked her to be my wife.
As the skaters swept past us, the lights of New York City shone a little brighter that night as we pledged our future together for better or for worse.
This is a fantastic and terribly sweet story. What a note to end on!
Aww, I love it! Um, and is Murphy your dog? That was the name of my family’s dog growing up–I named her, too 🙂
How wonderful…hope the next chapter in Australia is everything you want it to be!
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Thanks for the kind comments everyone. The NY trip just had to be done! Moving on to the Australian part of the journey next which promises to be a completely different experience!
Lauren – Murphy was indeed my chocolate lab and my best little boy. Milo (our black lab) is still around, loving his almost daily swims at the lagoons on the northern beaches. Murph passed a few years ago but we like to think he enjoyed his time here!