A Hunter’s Proposal

From Maine: a tale of how one hunter proposed to another, that was reported on a local news website.  Here’s an excerpt:

With blood up to his elbows, Jared Lavers of New Gloucester dropped to one knee in the North Maine Woods beside his dead moose and asked his girlfriend of six years for her hand in marriage.

It wasn’t exactly Prince Charming on a white horse, but Christine Messer thought it was perfect. She didn’t want fancy, she said, just something special.

Lavers, 34, and Messer, 37, both love to hunt, which is why Messer said it meant a lot to her that he planned his proposal out the way he did. Lavers started hunting when he was 10 years old, although he began tagging along on his father’s hunts when he was 6 or 7. Messer had hunted some before the two became a couple.

The couple’s first date was on July 18, 2018, and Lavers proposed on September 24, 2024.

“It wasn’t long into our relationship that I knew she was the one,” Lavers said. “I’m just a procrastinator.”

He thought about proposing on the anniversary of their first date in 2024, but then he was drawn in the moose lottery mid-June for the September week of bull season. It was his first moose permit. He didn’t have a subpermittee. His plan called for him to be the one to kill the animal.

“Why not put two extremely special moments together into the best moment of my life?, he said.