Today’s writing prompt is a fun one for me:  Can you keep a secret? Have you ever — intentionally or not — spilled the beans (when you should’ve stayed quiet)?

I’ve always been the friend that could keep a secret; so much so, that by the time I graduated from college I felt relieved to be moving home away from the throngs of people who relied on my ability to keep their confidence.  Most of these secrets are long-since forgotten, thankfully.  Since then the only secrets I have to keep are things like surprise parties for a family members or coworkers.

There was a secret about ten years ago that I didn’t need to keep, rather it was being kept from me.

One weekend in July of 2005, my then boyfriend and I were headed down to a lovely B&B in Mystic to celebrate that we’d been together for a year.  I knew we would be going out to a nice dinner and likely exchanging gifts.  I’d gotten him a beautiful watch and was excited to give it to him.  A big part of me expected that this might be when he would ask me to marry him.  Really, at 42 years old and a year-long relationship I figured it was time or I’d have to cut him loose.

Unbeknownst to me, the week before our trip my intended paid my parents a visit.  He’d bought a ring and asked their permission to marry me.  Sweet, right?!  Of course it is, but, the challenge would be for my mother to keep the secret.

In order for her to be successful with such exciting news, my Mom had to “go dark” for the week.  The problem with that is my Mom speaks to at least one of her eight children on a daily basis.  The week in question, however, no calls were taken or placed.  In fact, she told only one person the news (because it simply had to be shared); but she was sure it was someone who would not have any contact with me or any other family member.  By the end of the week when I spoke with a couple of my sisters, we were all wondering, “Where the heck is Mom?”

On Friday night when we arrived at the inn we exchanged gifts as expected.  I will save the actual proposal for another post, but as you can imagine I had phone calls to make when I finally stopped crying and said “yes”.  The first number I dialed was my Mom and after she said congratulations, she said, “Thank goodness! I don’t think I could have kept it a secret much longer.”

Today’s thank you goes to my Mom for keeping such a great secret so that I would have an awesome story to tell.

Locked and Sealed:

• You didn’t hear it from me…..
• Secrets Revealed
• The Naked Selfie
• Why women can never keep a secret…or maybe it’s just me.