(Written by a former resident of Shanghai)
It was when I read an article entitled “A Marriage Proposal that I learned the second meaning for “proposal”. As my son is an architect, I knew that he submitted proposals to design buildings, but I hadn’t known that it was also used to describe a man’s asking a woman for her hand in marriage.
In some Western countries, that’s a very romantic time. I’d seen it in movies, but I didn’t suspect that it could be used casually until last Friday when my friend Pat told me about an embarrassing incident that had occurred to her last Sunday night at the bus station.
After Mass that evening, she had gone to McDonalds to have dinner by herself, and while she was eating, she saw a well-dressed man of middle age go to the counter. He gave the clerk several coins – perhaps about a dollar - and said that he needed some food, but that was all the money he had.
The clerk was very nice to him. She responded that he should take a seat, and he sat at a table near Pat. After awhile, the clerk served him a hamburger.
Pat watched the man eating his hamburger and noted that he didn’t have a drink or fries, and a still, small voice in her mind said to her, “You should give him five dollars for juice and something else.”
She went to his table and put five dollars on it without saying a word and then returned to her seat.
The man got up and followed her back to her table and said, “Thank you, woman”, and then repeated it, “Thank you, old woman”.
After she finished her meal, she left and walked to the bus station to wait for her ride. She was surprised to see that the man had followed her and was at her side. When he had her attention, he asked, “Could you give me your hand?”
She thought he might want to shake hands and extended her arm toward him. He took her hand, kissed it, and then kneeled down saying, “Thank you very much.”
The bus was right behind her, and she boarded it. The driver of the bus was laughing, as he had seen everything that had happened so she told him the story. He continued to laugh and said that the man had proposed to her.
That thought hadn’t occurred to her, but it had been somewhat romantic. The bus driver was still laughing, but she was embarrassed.