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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — First, it was a dream.
Mary Spruill dreamed several months ago that her boyfriend, Alex Blose, proposed to her as she graduated from Tidewater Community College. In the dream, she said, her family and classmates watched as she became a graduate and a fiancee all at once.
But in real life, the crowd was bigger, and it roared on May 16 as Spruill walked across the stage and Blose got down on one knee. He proposed. She said yes.
Sometimes dreams really do come true.
"I was bawling my eyes out," Spruill said, giddily recounting the proposal Saturday afternoon. "All my family was sitting right there."
Spruill and Blose, both 24, met at Warwick High School in Newport News, where they graduated in 2009. Blose said they ran with different crowds, and he didn't notice Spruill until he ran into her in a 7-Eleven one day and she called him by name.
"We knew each other, but we never talked," he said.
He asked her on a date and they talked for four hours at Bridges restaurant in Smithfield, where they both live. They hit it off, Blose said, and it's been history ever since.
Despite the dream, Spruill said, she never expected he'd really propose during her graduation. She earned her associate degree to become an occupational therapy assistant. He arranged for their families to sit near the stage, so she was looking at them as she took her degree and walked across.
Then Blose grabbed her arm.
"I was like, 'What are you doing?' I was oblivious to everything," she said.
Blose handed her a paper heart she had given him on their first Valentine's Day together. It said, "Anything you want."
"He said, 'Well, I know what I want. I want to spend my life with you,' "Spruill said.
He gave her a ring they had picked out together. They're planning an October 2016 wedding.
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Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, http://pilotonline.com
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