2004/2005 was not very good years for me, between my grandparents passing away, losing a job that I loved, and my future wife's sister passing away from cancer. The highlight was getting 4th row seats for Paul, and I knew I would be proposing to her soon but I didn't know when. I thought doing it at the show may be kind of cool thing to do! I posted something on the McCartney website forum about possibly doing it and if there was a way to get a message to his people. I had some suggestions and help with ideas, but nothing ever really happened with it. Since Melissa made a couple of signs to hold up, I made a couple of my own and passed them out to people around us. Someone down front, right in front of where Paul was standing, wanted a sign to hold up and held it for me. Right between "Eleanor Rigby" and "Too Many People" Paul started talking about reading signs in the audience and he pointed at one sign and said "I can't read that, I can't do that!" and I could hear people yelling at him to do it. So he did, and I did, and the rest is history! During the chorus of "Hey Jude" he pointed at us and said "Now just Ben and Melissa" and I swear there was not one person making a noise in the arena except us! At the end of the show, after the final song the band did their final bows to the audience, ran in front of us and the pointed, blew us kisses and thumbs up, and then bowed to us. THAT was the moment that floored us both I think more than anything else.
Through the rest of the tour Paul told the story about reading the sign from what I read about the reviews of the shows on a McCartney fan site. At one show I heard that someone had a sign saying "Have you heard from Ben and Melissa?" While I don't know if that is true or not, I know that the following night in Detroit he told the story because we were also there. I know Mitch Albom was at the Friday night show and had us as guests on his radio show the following week. Maybe from the emails I sent or maybe some of Paul's people saw my postings and alerted him to the sign, I don't know. But regardless it was a magical mystery moment for us for sure!!!