Boca romance woos another as Ohio man pops the question

As the Gasparilla Island Kids Fishing Classic was winding down May 21 yelling could be heard on the point on the south end of the island. The excitement wasn’t due to another tarpon being hooked. It was because a man chose that moment to propose to the love of his life, a woman he’d known since junior high school. Jeff Naiman has been coming from Tulsa, Okla., to Boca Grande for about 10 years. He keeps a boat in Cape Haze, he said. “I’ve been coming down here tarpon fishing,” the defense contractor said. For years, he’s told Jennifer Boyse, a legal assistant in Tulsa, about the beauty of the island, the lighthouse and everything else that makes the area special. She was excited to see it for the first time in February.

The two dated off and on through the years. About five years ago they got serious but then drifted apart again. Eight months ago, however, they reunited and soon they decided to come to the island together.

They went out sailing Thursday on the Gulf of Mexico. Boyse had been feeling ill but went anyhow. The seas were rough, so they came back in. Naiman decided Saturday would be a better time to show her the lighthouse and carry out his surprise plans.

“I carried that ring around with me for a week,” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “She had no clue.”

Once at the Port Boca Grande Lighthouse, he dropped to his knees as the crowd on the beach watched. After he asked her the big question, some in the crowd began yelling: “Say yes, say yes.”

Boyse dropped to both knees, embraced Naiman and did say “yes.”

Several minutes after he popped the question, she was still shaking, giddy as a schoolgirl, gazing at the ring he had placed on her finger.

They have a tentative wedding date and place where they want to be married.

“In December or sooner,” Naiman said. They plan to be married on the point in front of the lighthouse she fell in love with in February with just the two of them and a justice of the peace.