Love on display

With the help of staff at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Gavin Haengel, 22, had an engagement ring waiting for Allison Gardner, 19, inside a display case in the museum Thursday. He took it out and proposed. (She said yes.) Childhood friends, "Allison and I grew up only a couple of streets away from each other, and I knew of her family," Haengel said. "But we had never had a real conversation. One day, I heard through the grapevine that she studied philosophy and decided to have a deep, introspective conversation with her," he said. "I quickly learned that her passion for thought and life matched and complemented my own," Haengel said. He and Gardner have always enjoyed going to museums around the country. "So I knew that displaying the ring as if it was an artifact … would really speak to both of us on a number of levels." It worked. "Words could not describe the total joy, complete love and utter surprise," Gardner said.