This is Mariposa. A magical place where Dane proposed to Jeanne Love at sunset on April 4, 2022

ENGAGEMENT DAY – April 4, 2022

By Dane Spotts

It started out in a court-room in Yavapai County. At 4:44 PM Jeanne became “Jeanne Love”. 

After driving from the Puget Sound to Cottonwood, we arrived in AZ on April 1st and Jeanne had her court date already set for April 4th to do a name change from her former married name of 40 years to the name that embodies her true spirit “Love”. So we went to county courthouse and she did her hearing thing and the Judge granted the name change. 

We celebrated the name change at Mariposa – (probably Sedona’s most beautiful restaurant located in the heart of sweeping red rock landscapes. It was truly a magical experience that evening, in more ways than one. She didn’t know I intended to propose to her that evening that was already an enchanting day. One of the happiest in her life she told me as we were seated to begin our dinner. 

We were seated by an amazing server staff (Dawn, Angelica and Matthew) who had no clue what I was doing either but they were totally accommodating.. . Then as we leaving, something amazing happened.

      

Witness to Unconditional Love

There are moments in life when you get an opportunity to witness, true unconditional love and amazing grace. This was one of them.

After our dinner of sitting in bliss with the love of my life and looking at the most amazing view imaginable, a young couple stood up
across the room from us. The woman in her early 30s was beautiful and her tall husband stood up barely able to stand and take a step. They were about 15 feet away, and the young woman said to him….. “Look at you.. you are walking”… Her eyes lit up the room like sparkling diamonds.. “Look at you – you’re walking”, she said.

I looked at Jeanne and she at me, as we watched him struggle with each step. Tears began welling up in each of our eyes as we witnessed a
pure and wonderful moment of grace. The beautiful wife in blue was glowing… this was love at its highest form.  We were watching something truly magnificent –  and it trumped my romantic proposal. 

As we walked outside to take in the views from different angles… we saw the young couple standing there and and she had given her husband the camera to take a photo of her, still beaming with those sparkled eyes. Jeanne told me about working as a nurse in the O.R. and how she would see such episodes weekly of unconditional love, mothers with their children, husbands and wives. Everyday people who were caught up in life’s challenges and who with undying support and affection for their loved ones. We cried and laughed together all evening feeling extreme gratitude for our own love – as improbable as it was for us to even find each other at this late stage of life, but even more powerful – witnessing the power of unconditional love, and how God blessed us with that moment of grace. A moment we will never forget as long as we live. And we will surly re-live it – again and again.