ALTADENA, Calif. — Brian McShea and Stephanie Raynor rummaged through the debris of where their Altadena home once stood to see what they could salvage from the destructive Eaton Fire. While Raynor looked for any items that survived the fire, McShea was looking for a specific item he hoped was still intact.
Through the rubble that was remnants of the material items the couple once had, McShea miraculously found just what he was searching for — the engagement ring he was going to use to propose to Raynor.
“My first reaction was like, ‘Oh, look, here it is,’” he recalled.
To be specific, McShea found the ring under his guitar strings. Right then and there, McShea decided to propose to his sweetheart.
“You think about how much all this pressure, all this perfection you want in the moment that you propose,” he said. “I found it, and it’s like, ‘Here it is. Will you marry me?’”
The tender moment brought Raynor to tears, she said.
“I cried, I was crying,” she said. “I had my glasses with the goggles on top and they like, fogged up completely. So, I just went and I like gave him a big hug and I obviously said yes.”
To commemorate the life-changing moment, the couple asked a woman passing by to take their photo. Before the ring permanently remains on Raynor’s finger, the couple took it to get cleaned at the jeweler where McShea purchased it.
While the couple looks forward to planning their wedding, they’re also looking toward rebuilding.
“Los Angeles has really been supporting Altadena and all the communities affected by fires,” McShea said. “And I’m hoping that, you know, they’re prepared to strap in for the long haul and we can build Altadena back. And yeah, we can spend some married years under the mountains.”
