Four words: four letters, three letters, five letters, two letters. Blanks for all of the letters and an upright rod with a hook were drawn on the board. On the end of a hook was a circle with a line coming down out of it. "_i__ you _arry _e" was what the class had come up with so far. "s" and "d", the letters that gave the hanging man his head and body, were written beneath the blanks. Ms. Tompko was sitting at her desk. She wore a red coat over a white button down shirt - for the sake of the festivities - and her usually curly hair spiraled down past her shoulders . Red hearts made out of construction paper saying what each student loved decorated the wall near the bookshelf on the far right side of the room. Ms. Tompko's sister, whom she had invited to join her third grade class's Valentine's Day party, stood at the board, taking suggestions for letters from the students. Ms. Tompko looked stumped as she tried to guess what the message that her sister wrote was, but didn't offer any suggestions.

Ms. Tompko's sister pointed to a hand raised in the back of the room. "L!" The sister turned around to face the board and walked in front of the blanks and wrong letters. The class held its breath as she raised her hand toward the chalk board. It was right! "_ill you _arry _e" was what we had. "Wow, you guys are good! You might have this one pretty soon," she said, and grinned towards her sister. I looked over and saw Ms. Tompko's expression change from a look of stupor to one of pure joy. Did the Tompkos just telepathically communicate the answer to each other? The sister pointed to another student. "C!" The sister turned around and quickly drew an arm coming out from the hanging man's body, then wrote the letter next to the other incorrect guesses. I could see Ms. Tompko's smile extend off of her face. Another student was called on. "M!" The sister turned around again and filled in more blanks. "_ill you marry me". "Only one more letter! I wonder what it is?" We all knew it, and yelled, "Will you marry me!"

Our proposal for the message was answered by the door opening. We all turned around and couldn't believe our eyes. A man dressed in a tuxedo walked in the room holding flowers. He walked over to Ms. Tompko's desk, where Ms. Tompko sat holding her hands over her mouth as to keep back the screams of excitement. The man gave Ms. Tompko the flowers, then knelt down on one knee in front of her and pulled out a black box from his jacket pocket. He opened the box to show off the diamond ring inside of it. "Well, will you marry me," he asked. She jumped up and shouted. "Yes, of course!" Everyone in the room clapped for Ms. Tompko and her fiance as she tried on the ring. This act of love touched all of our hearts and left a high expectation for our own marriage proposals.