For some, marriage is a quick trip to Las Vegas. For others, it’s a church wedding. But for each couple, it requires one first step to get there: someone who proposes.
And that is where we start our story. Quite literally – it all begins with a book.
For Canadian author Roz Weston, he knew his life demanded to be written about. He needed to. He had his long-time girlfriend, Katherine Holland, help him by reading the drafts of his memoir, A Little Bit Broken. He had begun the book two years earlier.
“Katherine read through every draft as I wrote it for almost two years, but I saved the last chapter,” Weston, co-host of Canada’s “The Roz & Mocha Show,” told People magazine. “Once I had an actual copy of the book, Katherine read it for the first time with me and our kid. I filmed the entire thing and (warned people that) the video will make you cry, I promise.”
Katherine Holland reads the last chapter of her boyfriend’s book. Photo by Katherine Holland
Because unbeknownst to Holland, there was one special chapter, the final one, that she, nor anyone else, had ever seen before. It was the one that mattered the most to him; in it he asks Holland to marry him.
“But no, nobody knew ahead of time,” Weston said. “When I sold the book to the publisher, they had no idea. I sold it without the proposal. I snuck in the last chapter to my editor on the day my final manuscript was due.”
Weston filmed himself, their daughter, Roxy, 13, and Holland, as they sat beside him. He gave a copy of the book to Holland to read, and directed her to the final chapter.
“I had absolutely no idea,” Holland told reporters. “Roz is great at always trying to create beautiful surprises for us, so it didn’t seem too out of the ordinary, but I certainly didn’t expect a proposal.”
“We had never really discussed getting married, as it wasn’t really a priority for either of us — only that we thought it would be lovely if our daughter could be a part of it — so I was truly shocked.”
From left, Katherine Holland, Roz Weston, and their daughter, Roxy. Photo by Katherine Holland
Weston told reporters that in the beginning when he started writing the book, the first chapter began with: “When you choose the person to spend the rest of your life with, you’re also choosing the person who’ll tell your story when you’re gone. And if you’re lucky, you’ll find someone who only sees the best in you.”
But then he knew it needed to be used for the final chapter. But he did spoil the ending for his YouTube viewers, conceding that he “needed people to know there’s a happy ending” since the book isn’t about the lightest of subjects.
In his memoir, Weston writes about his 17 years as a news correspondent, his battle with Tourette syndrome, a drug addiction, and the loss of his father. None of which was easy to talk about. But he let the book end with a hopeful tone, showing that love could shine through all the pain.
“I was an absolute sobbing mess,” Holland said. “When I think about the time, I spent reading and re-reading his book for him in the early stages, totally unaware of how it was going to end. And now we have such a beautiful document in the book (and the video) to be able to relive it forever.”
And for Weston, he got to set his story’s ending on a path toward something brighter.
To his love, he wrote:
I’m not the hero of this story, Katherine is. I always thought that the goal was to find somebody who completes you but that’s just not the case. The goal of the mission in that beautifully crushing adventure is to find somebody who is everything that you are not.”
He went on, “I wish I was a person who led with compassion; I wish I was more open, and less cynical and only ever saw the best in people. But I’m not. It is still hard for me, but it’s okay. Katherine is all those things. She is all those things I’m not and everything I hope to be.”
