Man gets creative with proposal after airport layover nightmare
PHOENIX (KSAZ) - One Phoenix man was stranded in Chicago's O'Hare Airport for nearly three days and he did something unusual to pass the time: he got engaged! Only his girlfriend was hundreds of miles away, so he decided to text message his proposal and the story is going viral.
Danny Roderique was on his way back to Phoenix from Dubai, but massive delays stranded him in Chicago. A local news crew interviewed him about the flight delays and that's when he revealed he just proposed with a text message.
You might call it a sign of the times. A simple text message with the words "Marry Me" and a picture of the ring.
"I just realized I didn't want to spend another day without her and wanted to make sure she knew it.. so I asked her to marry me," said Roderique, who had been carrying around the ring for days.
When the layover in Chicago turned into a 60-hour nightmare, he decided he couldn't wait any longer to pop the question to his girlfriend in Phoenix.
"I was trying to figure out how I was going to propose to her and make it right and make it special and this was nothing like I had planned or thought it was going to be," he said.
Roderique says his cell phone service wasn't working on his phone, but his wi-fi and text messaging were, so he sent a picture of himself down on one knee and the ring. She responded immediately.
"It didn't bother me, honestly and I wouldn't change it.. I wouldn't go back and change anything.. the way we were communicating, that's all we had.. he was stressed, I was stressed.. I wouldn't change it at all," said Heather Sirotzki.
When he did arrive in Phoenix, Roderique says he got down on one knee.
"Didn't want to be with anyone else ever again and gave her the ring."
His advice to the next person planning to propose:
"If you want to top inside an airport, do it from a plane 30,000 feet up, get some wi-fi on a plane.. propose that way."
For Roderique, his time at the airport was for an unforgettable proposal. He says they'll think about incorporating text messaging at the wedding.