DOWNTOWN She said “yes.”
On Valentine’s Day, Christopher Hertrich was sweating bullets all day,crossing his fingers that his girlfriend, Ritsuko Nakane, had not read the day’s edition of the Santa Monica Daily Press or had not gotten a phone call from a friend who had read the newspaper.
On page 3 of the Feb. 14 edition of the newspaper, he proposed to his girlfriend of three years. It read: “I’ve loved you since the day I met you. I want to spend the rest of my days with you. Ritsuko, will you marry me?”
Prior to their planned dinner at Monsoon Cafe, the groom-to-be suggested they take a trip to the Santa Monica Pier for a ride on the Ferris wheel. But Hertrich got off work late and the couple arrived at the Santa Monica Pier at 6:55 p.m. — five minutes before closing.
“We were rushing to get there,” Nakane said on Thursday. “He kept saying it was going to close soon.”
With a copy of the Daily Press in hand, Hertrich and Nakane ran down the pier and made it just in time to catch the last ride of the day on the Ferris wheel. Inside that day’s edition was another article detailing the most romantic places to propose in Santa Monica, which listed the Ferris wheel as No. 1.
“Here, read this,”Hertrich said as he handed the paper to Nakane.
“Why do I have to read it now? I’ll read it later.”
He forced the paper back and opened the newspaper to page 3.
He then took a ring out of his pocket and slipped it onto her finger.
“She cried and said ‘yes,’” Hertrich said. “She was totally surprised.”
Nakane said she loved the whole romantic Santa Monica scenario.
“I wanted to scream and let people know from the top of the Ferris wheel,” she said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 16, 2007. Read the original PDF.