My then boyfriend, Lar (short for Larry) Biederman, invited me to what was supposed to be a special science demonstration at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum where he has volunteered for 5 or 6 years doing science demonstrations on Saturday afternoons. Lar had told me that this particular science demonstration was going to be video-taped for commercials and grants. He also had said that he wanted a couple of friends to be there for support purposes so, we originally just invited two of my closest friends.
Then, I got excited and decided to invite my little brother also, figuring that Lar could call him out of the audience to have him help out as his assistant (since Lar asks kids if they would like to help him with science demonstrations from time to time) and he could possibly, get on TV too! Lar had set up this elaborate ruse that he and his brother had planned for two months. There was a series of hands-on science experiments. The final one was an invisible ink experiment with lemon juice. When he made the message appear on the paper, it was a sign that read, "Dear Marla, Will you marry me? Love, Lar."
He held it up for everyone in the audience to read before even I saw it (I was busy holding up the first sign to the audience that Lar had created which had just read the word, "Hi!" on it; I was his assistant for this last experiment). The audience had included my Father, Step-Mother, little brother, and three of my friends, as well as Lar’s older brother from New Jersey with his then girlfriend (now wife). We were all simply stunned. Lar had wanted to do something creative to pop the question, and had totally surprised everyone.
Afterwards, we all went out to dinner at the same restaurant where we met for the first time after finding each other in the personal ads on Yahoo!
Marla Lipson,
Ann Arbor, MI
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