LIHU‘E — Monica Turnbow of Flower Mound, Texas, thought the airlines had lost her bags when she was summoned to the visitor information booth at Lihu‘e Airport Thursday night. “The bags were checked under my name and I thought for
LIHU‘E — Monica Turnbow of Flower Mound, Texas, thought the airlines had lost her bags when she was summoned to the visitor information booth at Lihu‘e Airport Thursday night.
“The bags were checked under my name and I thought for sure the airlines had lost our luggage,” said Turnbow, surprised when she approached the booth.
Waiting behind one of the folding access panels, Adam Smith, also of Texas, poked his head out from behind the panel, adjusted the volume on a boom box and dropped on his knees after emerging from his hiding place.
Reaching his arm behind him, he fiddled for the ring case and offered the arriving visitor a proposal of marriage, garbed in a T-shirt emblazoned with the likeness of a tuxedo.
“Every one knew about this except Monica,” said Ron Turnbow, Monica’s father, whose family was among the arriving passengers. “This is going to be our future son-in-law, and this is the perfect way to start our vacation. We’re glad to get this part out of the way, and Kaua‘i is the perfect spot for this to happen.”
Among the guests waiting for the arrival of the American Airlines flight from Texas, Lewis and Joyce Willis of Akron, Ohio, were carefully trying to conceal themselves behind the information booth.
“We were flying since 6:30 this morning and just arrived at 7:30 p.m.,” Joyce Willis said. “The guys, Adam and Brady Cook, picked us up and took us for a bite to eat before returning to the airport to greet the American Airlines flight. If they ask, we are just going to tell them we got lost at the airport.”
Tim Skinner of the Lihu‘e Airport administration office said Adam Smith called him about a week ago, asking if the proposal was do-able.
“We’ve been communicating by telephone since then,” Skinner said. “I told him it was possible as long as they don’t make a big deal out of it.”
To help arrange the proposal, Skinner said the airport crew arranged to have a crawler installed on the video arrival and departure monitors, and once the plane landed, coordinated with the VIP booth staff to have Monica Turnbow paged to the booth where Smith and Cook were concealed.
“This is not your everyday occurrence,” Skinner said. “Sometimes it’s nice to have something like this happen.”
The security officers agreed, joking, “What if she said ‘no?’”
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
