Rob Cohen was waiting for the perfect moment to propose — and that moment came to mind when Hurricane Ian approached Florida.
Cohen had a feeling the site of his first date with Mary Fixl – along Lake Eola in Orlando – would soon be inundated by the monstrous storm. So he rushed his partner there on Wednesday as it started to rain.
“Everything else was closed. And I was like, ‘Do you want to go on a little hurricane adventure with me?'” Cohen said.
Cohen got down on one knee, where they walked on their first date in December 2021, and he asked Fixl to marry him.
After the proposal, the couple rushed home and stayed put as the hurricane battered the state for hours on Wednesday, killing more than 20 people and leaving destruction in its path.
“A VERY FLORISH THING TO DO”
Fixl and Cohen have been together for nine months, but they’ve known each other for 12 years — they met as neighbors.
When Fixl was on a 10-day cruise to Europe last week, Cohen said he realized, “I had to rush to marry that girl because I wasn’t a happy camper while she was gone. “
He didn’t waste another day.
“I thought it would be a very memorable way to propose in a hurricane,” Cohen said.
“It’s a very Florida thing to do,” Fixl explained.
Fixl said she was in the shower when Cohen asked her to go on a “hurricane adventure.” He handed her a summer dress for the occasion. When she asked him if she needed her hair and makeup, he said no.
“I thought we were just going to play in the rain,” Fixl said. “I didn’t know he was going to propose so I have no hair or makeup. I have a dress in the middle of the storm.”
CNN happened to be watching the tender moment from a distance — and quickly requested an interview.
“It was kind of surreal, to tell you the truth,” Cohen said, after speaking to CNN’s Ryan Young. “And then the CNN interviews, that just put the icing on the cake.”
Cohen was right to be there several hours before the storm. The giant fountain in Lake Eola Park was underwater when he saw it on Thursday, he said.
The couple’s second-story condo was spared the hurricane, though the ponds all overflowed, Fixl said. The damage was minimal this time, but they’ve seen worse.
“We’ve been through six or seven hurricanes here, the worst of which was Charley in 2004,” Cohen said. “And it looked like a bomb had gone off in the compound.”
Being grateful for their home and for each other brings them together, though finding love has taken a long time for Cohen and Fixl.
“Love can be very unexpected,” Cohen said. “Never give up hope because I’m 52 and…”
“I’m almost 40 and have never been married,” Fixl said.
“Sometimes you just have to wait,” he said.