PULLMAN – More than 2,400 students received a diploma case and a handshake from President Elson S. Floyd in graduation ceremonies at WSU Pullman on Saturday, but graduate Erica Mettler received one thing morea marriage proposal.
The proposal came on the floor of Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum during the first of three graduation ceremonies on the Pullman campus. Just after Mettler walked across the graduation stage and was returning to her seat, Devon Schefano, dressed in his U.S. Navy uniform, met her in the center aisle, knelt on one knee, took her hand in his, and asked the eternal question: Will you marry me?
Even as the graduation ceremony continued, with more students crossing the stage to the cheers of family and friends, many in the audience took note of the unfolding drama.
“Look! He’s proposing!” someone yelled. A moment later a speechless Mettler nodded her assent and Schefano slipped the ring on her finger. As the two embraced, more cheers erupted across the coliseum.
By design, Mettler was the last student in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication to receive her diploma. As the ceremony continued for students in the College of Liberal Arts, Mettler and Schefano retired to a staging area underneath the bleachers.
“My god, this is so beautiful,” Mettler said, holding out her trembling hand to admire her ring. “I can’t stop shaking,” she said, and laughed.
“Neither can I,” said Schefano, who is a Navy medic working with the Marine Corps.
Still, the relief on his face was apparent. An hour before the proposal, while waiting for this moment, he had admitted, “I’ve been deployed twice and I’ve been in combat, and this is the most nerve-wracking thing ever.”
Schefano, who joined the Navy in September 2003, has been to Iraq several times, including eight-month deployments in both Fallujah and Baharia.
He returned home from Iraq in March, arriving in San Diego where Mettler had flown down to meet him.
“No sooner did I step off the bus than she jumped into my arms,” he said. He wanted to propose right then, he said, but decided to wait until he could first ask Mettler’s father for his blessing in person.
Hence the decision to pop the question on graduation day.
“All of her family would be here,” he said. “I knew it would be the perfect time.”
Schefano said he and Mettler have been officially dating for just a year, but they’ve known each other for about 10 years. Schefano’s father lives in Spokane, and during a summer visit when he was about 15 he met Mettler in a hot tub at Splash Down. They saw each whenever he visited his dad in Spokane, but it was just a casual friendship until last year.
He invited Mettler down to visit him in San Diego, she accepted, and suddenly the long-term friendship was something more. But then he deployed for his second tour of duty.
“I actually didn’t want to be involved with someone when I was overseas,” he said. Now he can’t imagine not having Mettler to come home to.
“It just gave me something more to fight for.”
