They say that love know's no distance. And, for over a year, Ryan and Gillian commuted back and forth between each other's home towns to spend quality time with each other, and their friends and family. After an accidental meeting on a popular dating website, they immediately struck up conversation through emails. After a google search on Ryan's part turned up an interesting blog about Gillian having a brain tumor, instead of steering clear, he became more and more adamant about knowing Gillian. Three months of emails, face timing, and phone calls later...Ryan and Gillian met for the first time in Devine, Tx. Ryan drove three and a half hours to bring Gillian a letter before leaving for her ACTS retreat, took her to lunch, and drove home. And the rest is history. It was love at first email, and ended in pure happiness for the both of them.

Gillian's family was gathered at the coast for the annual family beach trip. After watching a movie and have a few glasses of wine... Ryan starts to tell the story of how he "fake" proposed to Gillian once on her front porch... Gillian immediately jumped in, stating how angry she was at him for doing that still, and takes over telling the story to her Grandmother, Brother/Sister-n-law, and Aunts and Uncles. Deep in the story Gillian fails to notice Ryan coming around the corner with a ring box in his hand. About the time she gets to the point where Ryan got down on one knee, she turns to her side to notice him doing just the same. However this time was the real deal. Immediately she squealed, and cried, and hugged him tight, and then smacked him hard on the chest and called him some special names. The couple glowed with joy, and enjoyed their evening with a romantic walk on the beach to celebrate their new future together.