Today (April 10, 2025) is the 20th anniversary of the day I proposed marriage to my wonderful wife Debbie in Austria at 11 a.m. Eastern European Time on April 10, 2005. I love her with all of my heart and always will.
A few minutes after I proposed, I took this photo of the exact spot where I popped the question.
On the last of my seven visits to Austria since the early 1980s, all of which I visited with my many Austrian cousins and many times skied in the snowy Austrian Alps, Debbie and I, with two of my Austrian cousins, Hans (R.I.P.) and his wife Rita, took a cable car to the top of Pfänder Mountain (altitude 1,064 meters/3,490 feet), overlooking the city of Bregenz in western Austria. Four countries can be seen from this location: Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and Liechtenstein, as well as Bodensee (Lake Constance), which can be seen in the distance in this photo. I had picked this spot to propose marriage years prior, just in case I ever had the courage to ask Debbie to marry me.
While on top of the mountain, my cousins walked away to look at the snowy scenery, and I found myself alone with Debbie. I pulled out a diamond ring that I had hidden in a small, empty cardboard box that once contained my asthma medication that was in a pocket of my blue ski jacket that I was wearing. Debbie's jacket was red. I then asked her to marry me. (Obviously) she said yes, but only after a seemingly endless moment of silence.
To celebrate, my cousins Hans and Rita took us to lunch at a restaurant in nearby Schwarzenberg, Austria. We then went back to their house on the side of a mountain in nearby Dornbirn, Austria, where the four of us drank champagne, possibly prosecco, along with my cousin Markus and his mother Blanka, Hans' sister (R.I.P.).
That evening around midnight (6 p.m. Eastern Time in the United States), my new fiancée and I called our respective families in southeastern Florida to tell them the good news. Debbie and I spent the next two weeks celebrating across Austria, visiting with many of my Austrian cousins in Dornbirn, Lustenau, Salzburg, and in Grinzing, a winery village near Vienna. Ludwig Van Beethoven lived in many apartments in Grinzing. He was constantly evicted for non-payment of rent.
Debbie and I wed on February 4, 2006, and continue to live happily ever after.
By the way, the day before I proposed, Debbie and I, with two more of my Austrian cousins, Guntram and his wife Lisa, visited a church in a small village in western Austria. Outside of a church, there was a small but legendary stone monument. As per tradition, if a woman bends down and puts her knee within the stones, she will be blessed with a good husband. So, of course, I basically pleaded with Debbie to put her knee in the monument. At first, she didn't want to because it was raining. She ultimately did it. I wanted her to do it to give her a hint as to my imminent marriage proposal, but the next day atop snowy Pfänder Mountain, she was still surprised.
Aileen Santos
