LOVE STORY: Man of few words got his message across

I was working for Southern California Gas Company in Los Angeles at the main office building. I lived in a small bungalow court in west L.A. near Culver City. I drove my car to work in a carpool with three other employees who lived there. I parked my car at the parking lot across the street.

When I came out after work Valentine's Day, my riders were all waiting for me with odd smirks on their faces, and when I tried to sit down on the driver's seat, I found a big white flower box on the seat. I asked who it belonged to. They said it was there when they got in.

I picked it up and carried it to the office of the man who ran the parking lot and told him I found it in my car and someone must have made a mistake because none of my riders or I had a clue why it was there.

He said, "That is no mistake. That's for you." I said, "I don't even know you except to pay my bill." He said, "That's why I put it there. I wanted to meet you and roses seemed appropriate for Valentine's Day. Could we have lunch tomorrow at Pig 'n Whistle? Maybe get to know you better?"

I couldn't think of an excuse not to, so I said, "OK." So we started having lunch together at the Pig, and then one day, he brought some brochures to lunch from Mexico City, and he asked me if I had been there. I said, "No, I have not been there. I've been to Mazatlan, but not Mexico City."

He said, "How would you like to go there for our honeymoon?" I said, "Is this a proposal?" He said, "I guess so."

So that's how my children's father managed to get my attention and persuade me to marry him. You could say he was a man of few words, but he seemed, somehow, to get across what he had on his mind.

Nikki Campbell

Carson City