Delta Pulls Out All the Stops to Assist Frequent Flyer With Memorable Proposal

It's not easy for sweethearts to maintain a long-distance relationship, especially when they live 800 miles apart. But over the past two years, Brennan and Skyler have maintained their Dallas-to-Atlanta romance via countless hours on Delta flights.

While flying solo recently, Brennan came to the realization that he and Skyler were "destined" to be together so he started plotting options for making the proposal truly memorable.

Since Delta was such a big part of their lives — not only did they commute back and forth between Dallas and Atlanta, but they also took vacations to fun destinations, such as Cancun and New Orleans — Brennan knocked out an email to Delta CEO Ed Bastian.

“Airplanes have a special place in our hearts," Brennan wrote. "Specifically, Delta jets brought us and kept us together. I have given a lot of thought to all the potential options for my proposal, and I keep coming back to somehow involving an airplane and Delta.”

Brennan didn't really believe that the note would amount to much, but he was very wrong.

Within 24 hours, Erica Almena of the CEO's correspondence team wrote back saying that Delta would love to help.

At the direction of Delta's CEO, dozens of Delta employees in Texas and Georgia sprung into action.

“I’m a sap for a good love story,” said Almena. “So planning this engagement with Brennan and our teams was like living a in a real life romance movie!”

During her latest trip from Dallas to Atlanta, Skyler had a hunch that something special was about to happen.

“When I walked into DFW, all the Delta agents looked at me like I was a celebrity,” Skyler said.

The pilots and flight attendants on her flight to Atlanta were in on the plan, too, delivering cards from Brennan and posing for pictures.

Once she arrived in Atlanta, she was met at the boarding door by a Delta operations manager and whisked away in a Porsche.

Her destination would be the "rain forest" tunnel between the A and B terminals. This was a special place for the couple.

During their two-year relationship, texted pictures of the tunnel came to symbolize the wordless message, "I'm on my way!"

Of course, Brennan was waiting for Skyler in the rain forest, where he went down on one knee and proposed.

Through tears of joy, she said, "Yes."

But then there was more. Riding in Delta's Porsche, the couple was treated to an insider's tour of the airport, including a photo op in front of the 306-seat Airbus A350. They were also escorted to the Delta Sky Club, where CEO Bastian sent them a congratulatory video message.

As the couple was about to board their flight to Dallas, posters of the couple decorated the entry to the gateway. One of the posters was titled, "Diamonds in the Sky."

On the flight, the celebration continued as passengers and the crew celebrated with Brennan-and-Skyler signs and clappers.

“It was the most fun I have ever had in one day,” Skyler said.

“This experience has been above and beyond,” Brennan added. “Delta will always be our airline and thus will be part of countless memories and celebrations in our future together.”

Credits: Photos by Alec Thomas, Delta Air Lines.

A Faceted Poudretteite Is So Rare Few Gemologists Will Ever Encounter One, Says GIA

Today starts an occasional series covering the rarest gems you've probably never heard of. The remarkable 9.41-carat light-pink oval gem seen here is one of the largest — if not the largest — faceted poudretteite in existence, according to the Smithsonian.

A faceted poudretteite is so rare, says the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), that few professional gemologists will ever encounter one.

Poudretteite gets its name from the Poudrette family, owners and operators of a quarry near Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada, where a few tiny crystals of the curious material was first unearthed in the mid-1960s. It would take until 1986 for poudretteite to finally be recognized and registered as a new mineral.

In 2000, the first documented gem-quality specimen of poudretteite was discovered nearly half-a-world away in Mogok, Burma — an area famous for its pigeon's blood rubies, as well as lapis lazuli, garnet, moonstone, amethyst, peridot and chrysoberyl. The 3-carat poudretteite was submitted to the Gubelin Gem Lab for examination, and the findings were published in the scholarly journal Gems & Gemology in 2003.

Also sourced in Burma, the much larger, nearly flawless 9.41-carat poudretteite is the only gem of its kind in the Smithsonian's National Gem Collection. The gem was generously gifted to the Smithsonian in 2007 by Frances Miller Seay.

Poudretteite can range from colorless to purple-pink and owes its color to the presence of manganese in its chemical composition. Specimens with few inclusions and saturated color are said to be worth $6,000 per carat or more.

On the Mohs hardness scale, poudretteite rates a 5, compared to amethyst (7), topaz (8), sapphire (9) and diamond (10). The relative softness of the gem makes it unsuitable to be used in a ring, but it could be used, with care, in earrings, a pendant or pin.

Credit: Photo by Ken Larsen / Smithsonian.