A granddaughter has honored her grandparents’ sweet love story after getting engaged at their favorite spot. She and her fiance also paid tribute to the magical moment by recreating an iconic photo of her grandparents from six decades ago.
Paige Orton’s grandparents Elva and Steve first met each other at Bryce Canyon in Utah in the summer of 1959.
Steve invited Elva to meet him for a fireside activity with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints less than a week later and they shared their first kiss. Elva said: “We could walk straight out in front of the Lodge to the rim. There was a great place to make out, so we did that quite frequently. What can I say? We were madly in love!”
The couple was certain that they wanted to marry each other that summer, however, Steve left on a church mission to Australia. They then made a pact that they would reunite at Bryce Canyon where their love story began.
When Steve returned, Elva caught the first bus from her new place of work at the Grand Canyon, where she was saving up for college by working both as program director and at the post office. The bus driver was in on the couple’s special moment. As soon as they neared the canyon, he began honking the horn, and the whole bus cheered to see Steve waiting for his beloved.
Steve was then hired as a bellhop in the Grand Canyon. Dating as canyon employees was “the best,” Elva said. Their love intensified, and Steve forged a romantic plan.
“At 5:00 in the morning, he came scratching at the door ... and he said, ‘Elva, let’s go out on the rim, I want to talk to you,’” Elva said. “We have prayer, and decided we wanted to get married before school started.”
After almost 55 years of marriage, Steve passed away in 2017.
In celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary, Elva returned to Bryce Canyon with her extended family in September 2022.
They were moved to find Steve’s signature from 1957 carved near an employee’s linen cabin doorway but that wasn’t the only nostalgic moment.
The morning after, Paige was visited by her boyfriend, Garrett Arnoldsen, who drove through the night to surprise her at the canyon rim at sunrise.
He proposed.
“Growing up, this has been the most romantic place in the world to me because of your story,” Paige said to her grandmother.
Surrounded by family, the newly engaged couple recreated a photo of Elva and Steve in their Sunday best, looking out over the canyon. It must have been taken when Elva’s parents came to visit, Elva said, since neither she nor Steve had a camera.
In Paige and Garrett’s loving recreation, the groom-to-be faces the camera with a faraway smile, like Steve, while Paige has her back turned and is looking out over the hoodoos with one foot tucked behind the other, like Elva.
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