The boulder at the northwest corner of Ridge Road and Thornwood Avenue in Wilmette has been decorated over the years in garish colors or with messages and images reflecting upcoming holidays and current events.
The Grinch leered at passers-by one Christmas. An American Flag marked the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A Chicago Blackhawks logo celebrated the team’s Stanley Cup.
But it was the message painted there Saturday that took Carly Graham’s breath away:
“Carly will you marry me?”
Graham’s family lived on the corner and painted the rock for a decade, continuing a practice that began long before. Three years ago, her family sold the house and moved to Georgia, where Graham, 21, will enter her final year at the University of Georgia in the fall.
For the Memorial Day weekend, she brought her boyfriend, Daniel Hudson, for a visit to the Chicago area. The painted rock was high on the list of sights to see. But it was Graham who was floored when they arrived.
“It was absolutely perfect,” Graham said.
Hudson, 20, who will be a junior at Young Harris College in Georgia, had decided to propose during the visit. Through a high school friend of Graham’s, he struck up an email conversation with Katy Cox, who now lives in the corner home with her husband and four children. For the last three years, they have carried on the tradition of painting the rock for special occasions.
Ordinarily, they don’t take requests, Cox said, and the groom-to-be didn’t want to impose too much. There was a “Finding Nemo” theme on the rock, and he had asked that she paint a small “Will you marry me?” on it.
“I said, ‘Don’t be crazy,'” Cox said. “‘This is your proposal. If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right.'”
Cox painted the rock black in the days before the scheduled proposal. That morning, a rainstorm stopped just long enough for her to add the text, she said.
Hudson parked his car around the corner, put a blindfold on his girlfriend and led her to the rock. Then he took a knee.
“I take (the blindfold) off, and he’s down on one knee and he’s holding the ring out and the rock is right there in front of me,” Graham said — referring to the boulder, not the ring, which was romantic in its own right. It belonged to Graham’s great-great-grandmother, she said.
While Cox’s four daughters tried to peek through the window, Hudson asked Graham to marry him.
She said yes, and the two are tentatively planning on a 2014 wedding, Graham said.
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