Thanks for asking!

It was Monday, September 18, 2000. Mark and I met up between two buildings on the east side of campus. He was headed to geology and I was headed to elementary math theory. We had just returned from a weekend trip up to the Plano area to visit his parents and my brother. Mark said, "Hey, are you doing anything tonight? Cause I was going to try to be romantic." "Romantic, huh?" I stated with laughter. "Alright, I'm free." That evening, I remember that we didn't go out to eat and the sun set not too long after he picked me up, so we must have had dinner separately. When we finally made it to our destination, we were at the capitol building in Austin. I absolutely love the capital building and used to enjoy hanging out there before the security was stepped up after 9/11/01. We got out of of the car and started wandering around the capital grounds. After about 10 minutes we made our way over to a covered stone pavilion in the front of the capitol. Mark told me to wait there because he had left something in the car. When he returned he had a dozen red roses in his hand. You have to understand that this was very unusual because Mark had never given me flowers in the 5 months we had been dating. He stood in front of me and told me that each rose represented something he wanted to give to me. The roses stood for friendship, joy, hope, mind, heart, soul, body, devotion, commitment, trust, love, and life. After he explained each of the roses he would lay it on the ground around me. By the end of the 12, I was in a circle of roses. He then said these words, "There are many things I want to give you in your life. I can't afford to give them all to you now. But, there is one thing I can give you." Then he knelt on one knee, pulled out a ring box, and asked, "Hattie Epperson, will you marry me?" And, since you now know Mr. and Mrs. Fowler, obviously my answer was "YES!" On a side note, the ring box had a light in it that lit up and shone when you opened it, and that is why Mark proposed to me as the sun was setting.

Thank you, Mark, for asking me to marry you. You bless my life daily with your love.