DE PERE, Wis. (WBAY) – A De Pere woman gets her Christmas wish, about 10 days late. Not only only did her son get engaged over the holidays, but she now knows what it was like when her boy popped the question — thanks to the power of social media.
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. But for Jeannie Goffard of De Pere, a picture of her son, Brian Perrigoue, proposing to his longtime girlfriend, Samantha Kohlbeck, at Lambeau Field on Christmas Day didn’t speak to her enough. She wanted to know more about that moment, saying, “I’m just so happy for my son and his now-fiancée.”
And she was hoping the man in the background of the picture, wearing the number 13 Packers jersey, could shed some light on the proposal. “I want to just, what was going through their mind as they witnessed that,” says Goffard.
So Goffard took a shot in the dark and posted about the proposal on a De Pere community Facebook page. Less than two hours later, thanks to the power of social media, she’d track down the mystery man. His name is Paul Wanish, and the tickets to the Christmas day game were a gift from his wife.
As he spoke with Goffard on the phone Tuesday, he vividly remembered the proposal. “I nudged my wife quickly and I said, ‘Look at that, look over there, they’re getting engaged right next to you,’” he told Goffard. “He made the proposal, she said yes, and the crowd of people around us all clapped and cheered and that was just like seconds before kickoff to the game.”
He added, “It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. And it was, I’m sure a special day for them and they helped make it a special day for everyone around us in that section.”
Hearing the story and the joy it brought was exactly what Goffard was hoping for, adding, “I’m at ease. I’m at peace. I’m just tickled pink.”
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