I Proposed to My Girlfriend at Her Mom’s Funeral — My MIL Never Liked Me

Every now and then, life throws us a curveball, and the perfect moment we had in mind doesn’t quite pan out as we expected. It can even lead us to pick a time that seems less than ideal. When it comes to proposing to the love of our life, finding that magical moment can be a journey filled with ups and downs, and the main character in this story has experienced it all.

He never could figure out the perfect time to pop the question.

After spending a loving and adventurous two years with his girlfriend, a man reached a pivotal point in his life where he felt the strong urge to embrace a more settled future together. His philosophy had always been to let life unfold naturally, trusting that significant moments would materialize when the time was right.

The quirky part is, that he’s been toting around an engagement ring like a secret agent carrying classified documents. He was just waiting for that magical moment to drop the big question. But when that moment finally came along, it didn’t play out quite like he had pictured.

When that moment finally arrived, it unfolded in a way that caught him off guard. Believe it or not, his proposal left his girlfriend completely flabbergasted. He was so taken aback by her reaction that he turned to Reddit, seeking advice and second-guessing whether he’d done something wrong.

Adding a little backstory, his girlfriend grew up in a single-parent household. Her dad split when she was a kid, leaving her mom to raise her on her own.

His mother-in-law has never liked him.

His mother-in-law was always a bit too protective, but when she found out her daughter was dating this guy, she went full-on Mama Bear. When they first got together, she was 18, and he was 23, and her mom wasn’t too thrilled about the age gap. She made it pretty clear that she disapproved.

From the beginning, the guy knew he’d have a tough time getting mom’s blessing to marry her daughter. But he was dead set on making things work with the love of his life, no matter what obstacles were in his way.

As he explains, “My girlfriend only has her mom as her dad left when she was just a child and her mom has always been overly protective of her. I don’t know if it was possible, but I believe that she had gotten even more protective when she found out that I was dating her daughter as she recently turned 18 at the time, and I was 23. It was obvious that her mother didn’t approve of me because of our small age gap, and she had never kept her dislike for me a secret, so there was no way that she would end up approving us getting married.”

The man chose the worst time ever to propose to his girlfriend.

Then, life threw them a real curveball. They got the devastating news that her mom’s breast cancer had reached stage four, and it had gotten so bad that treatments wouldn’t help much. In the face of this grim situation, his MIL made the tough choice to spend her last days surrounded by her family.

Sadly, she eventually passed away after her battle with stage four breast cancer. Because of how serious it was, she decided not to go through any more treatments and instead wanted to cherish her final weeks with her loved ones.

Now, why he chose to pop the “famous” question during the wake is quite a story. He thinks to himself, “This is it, I’m going to ask her today.” But he knew it just wouldn’t be right to pop the question right there. So, he held back each time the urge came over him.

A couple of hours into the wake, when they were back at their own house with friends and family around, he decided it was time. He discreetly pulled his girlfriend aside and lay down the speech he’d rehearsed a thousand times in his head, imagining the day he’d ask her to marry him. With a deep breath, and then, full of hope, he got down on one knee and popped the big question.

What left him utterly puzzled, though, was his girlfriend’s response. Instead of the enthusiastic “yes” he’d expected, she shot back with a question of her own.

Her response left him utterly speechless.

While he poured his heart out, his girlfriend stayed eerily quiet. At first, he took her silence as a sign of shock, thinking she was just taking a moment to process it all. But when she finally spoke, it was a total curveball.

“Are you tone-deaf?” she bluntly asked him, leaving the man utterly perplexed. He had thought the funeral was the perfect moment to propose, given how it made them realize life’s fleeting nature and the importance of going after what you truly want.

Their conversation hit a sudden wall. Instead of the expected “yes,” he was left in a state of uncertainty. Feeling dejected by how things had turned out, he needed some time to collect his thoughts. Turning to his friends for advice, he asked if he had messed up by proposing during the funeral. Their response didn’t offer much comfort; they flat-out called him an “insensitive.”

However, despite the backlash, the man remained steadfast in his perspective. He defended his actions, arguing that his intentions were sincere and posing the question, “doesn’t every girl just wanna get married to the love of her life?”

It shocked people all over the Internet, leaving divided opinions.

Reddit users are seriously shocked by the guy’s total lack of empathy for his grieving girlfriend. One wrote, “This has to be fake. Nobody can be this insensitive.”

One person commented, “Poor girl. Her mom was right about him. And girlfriend didn’t get to see it until mom was gone.” Some found it kind of funny, saying, “It’s so funny that he thinks he still has a girlfriend. Guarantee that she wants nothing to do with him anymore.” Someone else joked, “Usually, it’s birthdays, not funerals, where you invite clowns.”

However, users online couldn’t believe how audacious the guy was. While he was trying to spin his girlfriend not saying a direct “no” as a good thing, most folks hoped she’d have the sense to leave him for good.

This story is sure to get a reaction out of people, but it’s not the only quirky proposal tale we have. Check this one out.