She said “Yes!”
Again.
When John and Donna Gerrity, of Melbourne Beach, decided to renew their vows after 17 years of marriage, Donna jokingly told her husband he should propose – and John decided that’s exactly what he’d do.
That proposal took the form of five signs placed separately alongside Oak Street in Melbourne Beach, that together read “Donna will you marry me?”
The signs caught the eye of locals who traveled the road last Friday and many took to social media asking ‘Who is Donna?’ And more importantly, ‘Did she say yes?’
On Saturday, one Facebook poster asked, “So … doesn’t anyone south of Ocean Ave. know if Donna said yes?!?!”
Donna first saw the proposal Friday morning as she drove their 13-year-old daughter, Sarah, to school. Because of daylight savings time, it was still quite dark – and John had tasked his daughter with making sure that mom saw the signs. “I was in on it,” Sarah said. “As we passed the first sign, I said, ‘Hey isn’t that your name?’”
Donna said she was happy, and both were laughing as they continued the drive and saw the complete question. “Of course I said yes,” Donna said.
Placing the signs was no easy task for John. He knew the route she would take in the morning, but it was close to midnight last Thursday when he got back to town from a flight into the Orlando airport. “I knew I had to get them up, so I put the signs out in the dark and just hoped the police didn’t stop to ask what I was doing,” John said.
“When we picked them up on Friday night, there was a group of neighbors nearby and they shouted over to me, ‘Did she say yes?’”
The couple first met as students at Melbourne High School. “We were high school sweethearts,” Donna said. “But went our separate ways when we went to college.”
They reconnected again in 1999, and in 2002 the couple eloped to Honduras.
“At the time, we didn’t want a huge wedding because we wanted to have an amazing honeymoon,” Donna said. “Now we want to have a church wedding with friends and family and have our wedding rings blessed by a priest.”
This week the couple will renew their vows at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Melbourne Beach.
Because neither is on social media, both were surprised to learn the proposal garnered so much attention. “My friend Kasey, who is doing the food for our reception, told me about the social media posts,” Donna said. “I was so surprised.”
Kasey Cook of Melbourne Beach said she saw the signs on her way to and from her house all day and it didn’t dawn on her that it could be the Donna she was catering a vow-renewal breakfast for, until her husband mentioned it.
“I texted her and asked, since I knew she wasn’t on social media and she said yes, she was THE Donna from the signs.” Cook said. “I made sure it was OK with her to reveal her identity and she said, of course. So fun and romantic.”
Cook shared the details on social media Saturday. And as the news got out, numerous congratulations rolled in: “How sweet!,” “So amazing!” and “So awesome!” they stated, with one person adding, “We can all rest now.”
