Through Aisha….!
In case you didn’t know, Aisha and I have a business relationship.
The initial business relationship was a DoD mentor-protégé program.
As part of this program, we were encouraged to have CEO-to-CEO meetings.
At our first CEO meeting, Aisha decided to bring her mom – Niema – along with her.Our meeting was at a restaurant; and, when I saw Niema walk into the restaurant, I was immediately smitten by her beauty and presence.
So, Aisha and I are discussing CEO business stuff (really) but, eventually the conversation turns to what’s going on in our lives and what we would like to do personally.When it was my turn to answer, I replied – “Take dance lessons!”.
Aisha’s response was – “my mom likes to dance”!Niema’s facial response to Aisha’s suggestion was “what are you saying, girl?!”.
At least that was my initial read.But Niema showed an almost instantaneous grace and said yes, that she would be willing to take dance lessons with me.
My state of “smitten-ness” went to the next level.
It took a few months before we started to dance together (July of 2022).
For our first several dance lessons we met at the dance studio.
But around the 4th or 5th lesson, I was picking Niema up for our lessons; and we started to go out after our lesson to grab a bite to eat.Being the high roller that I am, I took Niema to the Silver Diner in Tysons.
I had a Rueben sandwich with fries and Niema got a salad with shrimp.
As most of you know, Niema loves French fries.So, when she casually reached over to grab a fry or two from my plate, I knew this was the woman for me! [Note: You all know it was more than one or two fries!]
“Smitten-ness” on the rise again!
Fast forward to the week before New Years 2022.
My sister Lorra and her clan of 15 or so are at my (our) house preparing for a New Years Eve party as a gift to Niema and me.
Part of the clan is Raylene our Flower Girl and oldest grandniece.
Sometime during the commotion of planning for the party, Raylene came to me with a simple question, “Where is your wife?”.
She was obviously looking for Niema and, in her seven-year-old innocence, she assumed based on how she saw Niema and I interreact, that Niema was already my wife!
I shared this exchange with Jennae (Raylene’s mom), my sister Lorra and eventually with Niema.
When talking with Niema I brought up our future together and I thought Raylene was right and we should think about getting married!
Soon after our discussion about our future, Niema was on the phone with Aisha and talking about having rings designed, wedding locations, etc.
So now we are “pseudo” engaged. The plan was to make it official during a dance competition we would be at in late July of 2023 in Rome, Italy. Aisha and Tasneen were both able to join us for this “engagement” trip.
The name of the competition was “Ciao Amore” and was held at the beautiful Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria hotel.
The event sponsors did a fantastic job and had special events each night of competition. On the 4th of August I was able to convince the organizer to let me interrupt the medieval costume party, planned for that night, to propose to Niema.
Instead of trying to explain the proposal – here is a video of it!
We would love for you to witness how our marriage proposal unfolded. Please use this link to watch the video. Click Here.