Altadena, CA, Couple Gets Engaged in Rubble of Home Destroyed by Eaton Fire
New York Daily News
(TNS)
A Southern California man who lost his home in the wildfires proposed to his girlfriend in the wreckage of their residence after miraculously finding his engagement ring.
Brian McShea wasn’t home at the time he and his girlfriend, Stephanie Raynor, were ordered to evacuate their home in Altadena because of the Eaton fire, he told KABC.
Raynor was home and rescued their pets but didn’t have time to take anything else, according to a GoFundMe page for the couple.
After several days away as the Eaton fire ravaged Altadena and neighboring communities, McShea and Raynor returned to find their home completely destroyed. But McShea didn’t give up hope, knowing he’d stashed an engagement ring in a desk drawer.
“I was like, ‘We’re going to look over here where my desk is,'” McShea told KABC. “I did not tell her why. I don’t know what (she) thought we were looking for because it was pretty obvious that a lot of my stuff was gone.”
After a couple moments of false hope, McShea located the ring, which was intact, having somehow survived the blaze.
“You pick it up, and there’s a little diamond. I was on my knees and I was like, ‘Hey, will you marry me?’” he told KABC.
“And I was crying,” Raynor added.
The two shared the moment on Instagram, and their friends started the GoFundMe — for the fire recovery, not the wedding.
The Eaton fire and other blazes around Southern California killed 28 people and damaged more than 16,000 structures across multiple weeks.
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