… but I will anyway.
On March 30, 2026, Barron Wallace of Lilburn, Ga., proposed marriage to Margaret “Meg” Rooney of Richmond, Va., in a rented, white Penske truck on the side of Interstate 85 just north of Greenville, S.C.
She said “yes.”
The significance of these seemingly mundane details will be clearer momentarily, but let me say at the top, that New South Essays endorses this decision and wishes the happy couple a long and joyous life together. This is a good thing if ever there was one.
It’s also one of those modern love stories that my Darling Beloved enjoys reading, so with permission from the newly betrotheds, I will attempt to spin this tale and generate so many clicks… errr… so much joy that the irresistible force of true love will lift everyone’s spirits.
As the father of the proposer, I only have one perspective on this love story, and I am not privy to all the twists and turns. But I know enough.
I know I sent my 20-year-old son off to work at PASSPORT camp in 2021, and he came back a changed man. He was more mature, more confident, more spiritually formed, more supported by a group of close friends, and more in love than I had ever seen him. When we picked him up at the end of the summer, he was that mix of elated and depressed that comes from feeling strong emotions all at once. My Darling Beloved and I could tell something powerful had happened over the course of the summer.
If you grew up in church you may remember having missionaries visit and show slides of their work. His first night home from camp, Barron gave us a slideshow of his summer. All that was missing was the music track of “People Need the Lord” or “Friends are Friends Forever.” He took us through his summer in pictures, and my Darling Beloved couldn’t help but notice one character surfacing more frequently than the others.
When we got to a section of random pictures of Barron and this mystery girl in a white Penske truck by the side of the road, he had our undivided attention. The reoccurring girl turned out to be “Meg.” She was a year older than Barron and, as a result, the person of age selected from among the camp staff to drive the rented truck loaded with camp supplies from the campus of Greensboro College in North Carolina south to the campus of Furman University where they would set up for the next few weeks of the summer. Barron was “assigned” (or volunteered) to ride shotgun for… uh… security reasons.
This led to such an in-depth and engrossing conversation during the drive that the fuel gage was ignored. When they inevitably ran out of gas, they were stranded on the side of I-85 somewhere between Charlotte and Greenville. It was equal parts hilarious and concerning. As someone trained in the journalistic arts, I recognize the ingredients of a good story. It had the elements of a rom-com “meet cute.”
PASSPORT has strict rules about fraternizing among the summer staff, for good and obvious reasons, so Meg and Barron got to know each other at a distance for the rest of summer, turning up in more and more of each others’ camp photos. His missionary slide show may as well have been titled “The summer I met this girl, Meg (and oh, yeah, I worked camp, too.)”
We eventually met this “Meg” who had so enthralled our son. We saw all the qualities that ensnared Barron. She was smart, beautiful, funny, bold and adventurous in ways that complemented and matched Barron’s personality and zest for life. They both had a good church upbringing, stable families with multiple siblings, and a fondness for ice cream. What they didn’t have in common was a zip code.
They spent the first few years of their relationship feeling the strain of long distance. Meg was finishing undergrad at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., while Barron was matriculating at the University of Georgia. This difficulty was ameliorated somewhat by Meg moving to Atlanta for grad school at Emory University in 2022.
At least then they were in the same state. The logistical challenges of seeing each other as much as they would like was eased, but they still weren’t in the same city. That was rectified two years later when Meg moved to Athens. She was in her last year at Emory, and they wanted to see how they would do being with each other more consistently. Meg spent time at our house during the week when she was in class, and we got to know her as a person on her own. We finally had a daughter in our lives, and we became convinced she would be a permanent fixture.
Meg and Barron plugged into the young adult community at First Baptist Church of Athens and had a common circle of friends. They grew closer, their career paths became more predictable, and they were finally beginning to feel more settled. Barron finished his bachelor’s degree at the University of Georgia and began working full-time in the Office of University Architects for Facilities Planning. Meg earned her master’s from Emory and started a Ph.D. program at the UGA.
All the signs pointed toward an impending engagement. But ever the meticulous perfectionist, Barron wanted the perfect proposal that encapsulated their relationship. Because a future together was looking more and more certain, he found it difficult to execute a surprise proposal.
Both Barron and Meg like old things, so when Carla showed them her grandmother’s circa 1940 wedding ring, they decided they wanted something like that for their engagement. Barron went into secret spy mode and managed to get the engagement ring and wedding band to Athens jeweler T.K. Anderson Designs. They replaced the center diamond and cleaned up the rings, making them sparkle like new.
He employed some deception to create the element of surprise. He led Meg to believe the ring was not ready when they braved the government shutdown TSA lines at Hartsfield Jackson last weekend and flew to Richmond. He bought some antiques, like he usually does when he goes with Meg to see her family in Virginia, as an excuse to rent the Penske truck to drive back to Athens.
They set out and stopped at some important places to the early days of the relationship in Greensboro. Meg confessed to us that she knew Barron couldn’t propose because he didn’t have the ring, but she thought he was missing a really good opportunity. She was unsuspecting when Barron pulled the Penske over on to the shoulder south of Charlotte to recreate being out of gas from their ride together in 2021. But that’s when Barron, an inarticulate bundle of nerves, fumbled for the ring box and asked Meg to marry him.
So now we’re officially the parents of an engaged young adult, entering the throes of wedding planning. We’ve already had our first meeting, a highly organized conference call via Zoom with Meg, Barron, and Meg’s delightful parents, Scott and Sandra. I don’t remember much about planning our wedding other than it involved a scrapbook and pages and pages of lists. Evidently now you use Zoom and spreadsheets.
I have total confidence in these two. They will make this a beautiful wedding. I really will leave it to them to share those details, and I will dutifully show up when and where required, paying as needed to help them celebrate their love and commitment.
Congratulations, Barron and Meg. You are a fun and lovely couple. We look forward to seeing you do life together in the years ahead.
New South Essays 