Retired Army Specialist Tyler Jeffries, who lost his legs in Afghanistan in an IED explosion in 2012, proposed to his girlfriend, Lauren Lilly, in front of Former Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and their wives. It all went down at an event at the Bush’s summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
Jeffries was among several other wounded warriors at the home, as they were featured in in the book “Unbreakable Bonds: The Mighty Moms and Wounded Warriors of Walter Reed,” which the elder Bush wrote foreword to. The book is about mothers helping their sons recover from combat injuries at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
At the event, Jeffries mentioned he planned on asking Lilly to marry him soon. The former presidents urged him to ask her at their home that same day.
“I had been planning it for a few weeks,” Jeffries told Inside Edition. “I knew I wanted to do it up in Maine. I just didn’t expect to do it at the Bushes’ house.”
“George W. Bush had a look on his face – ‘You need to get her here,'”Jeffries recalled.
Lilly, who was out with with Jeffries’s daughter, later arrived at the Bush compound. Two friends helped Jeffries down on one knee, and she immediately said yes!
Bush Sr. later took to Twitter to congratulate the newly engaged couple.
Congratulating Tyler Jeffries and Lauren Lilly on their engagement, and wishing them a lifetime of joy together. pic.twitter.com/W7hjX3dgWL
— George Bush (@GeorgeHWBush) August 10, 2015
“No one is going to be able to top this,” said Jeffries of his proposal. He also added that the Bush family was great and showed nothing but military love.