After 39 guys, and 6 years of dating, the “just check him out,” was not going to fly with me

"Puh-nee-nuh, when you get engaged, you remember I have a wedding band for you, ya hear?” my Great Aunt Lil drawled as we bundled into our coats at the end of our visit.

At all of eight years old, getting engaged seemed light years away. How on earth would I remember? But Aunt Lil said this with such importance, that I nodded and willed my brain to store this information under Very Important Things to Remember When I Grow Up.

Every winter break of my childhood, my parents loaded us kids and half the kosher meat department of Arthur’s Kosher into the back of our station wagon and headed south to my grandmother in Mobile, Alabama. (Hate to burst anyone’s childhood imagery, but Minyan Man was not actually filmed in Mobile — and in the ’80’s, even with my father included, there wasn’t close to a minyan of shul goers.)

Located in the Gulf of Mexico, Mobile is rich with American History. My father took us to tour Fort Morgan and Fort Gains. At Battleship Alabama Memorial Park, we climbed aboard the USS Alabama BB60 to explore the battleship used in World War II. After we’d discharged our energy exploring, we went to visit our relatives in the city.

Aunt Lil had never been blessed with children, and her husband had passed away when I was a toddler. Whenever we’d visit, she’d shower us with gifts and all the cookies and candy with an OU she could find in the local grocery. And always, at least once a visit, she’d remind me about the ring.