Their home is destroyed, but Michelle Sanford and Dutch Risch, both of Port Charlotte, became engaged after surviving Charley.
PORT CHARLOTTE - He knew he loved her. But when he watched the wind lift their van off the ground with her screaming inside, he wanted to tell her.
Dutch Risch, 52, and Michelle Sanford rode out Hurricane Charley at a friend's house. In the middle of it, Michelle darted out to the van to fetch her nightie. Dutch, her boyfriend of six months, watched the van rise and heard her scream. He saw her clawing at the windshield.
He stood stunned on the porch for a minute, tried to catch a lull between gusts, then ran out after her.
The wind picked him up and slammed him down. It scraped his knees and blew his watch off his wrist. He buried his face in sand until two friends helped them back to the house. "I did two tours in 'Nam," he said, "and I was scared."
After the storm they went home, and found it destroyed.
They took a 12-pack of Natural Light, some pillows and some Twinkies out to Port Charlotte Beach. They spent all night in the back of the van, not sleeping. When morning came, he thought about what a lady she was, even with dirty fingernails. He thought about how scared he was when he saw her face in that window. He'd never really told her how he felt.
He asked her to marry him. He doesn't remember the words he used. He remembers the way the sky looked though, the most beautiful sky he'd ever seen.
Michelle looked at him quietly for a while, then said, "Well, if we've been through all this . . ."
She took her mother's sapphire ring from her right hand and moved it to her left.
Sunday afternoon, they refueled the Aerostar, their new home.
It had a flat tire, an empty tank and two open beers in the cup holders. All around them, people sagged against their cars and leaned on their steering wheels.
Michelle, in the passenger seat, propped a bruised ankle on the dashboard, and laughed for a long time.
