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A concert and a proposal

McCartney pauses show for couple's marriage proposal

Auburn Hills: Ben Okuly thought he was ready to propose to his girlfriend, but first he needed Paul McCartney's approval.

Mr. Okuly was attending the former Beatle's concert in suburban Detroit when he held up a sign that caught McCartney's eye: "Can Ben ask Melissa to marry him?" McCartney spotted it and read it out aloud.

"Well, go on, get down on your knees and ask her, Ben!" Sir Paul ordered. Ben did, and Melissa promptly said yes.

"Well, that's a first for me," McCartney quipped of the in-concert engagement. "And I hope it's a last for you, Ben."

Ben, a 26-year-old library employee, hatched the plan when he and his girlfriend, Melissa Steele, were driving from Ohio to attend the concert. "I was trying to think of a way to do this and make it a memorable occasion, really special," he said.

Later in the concert, McCartney even pointed to the couple to sing their own line of `Hey Jude' when he had different sections of the arena sing the song to him.

"To have Paul McCartney be there and start the proposal, I really don't have words to describe what that was like," Ms. Melissa, who works in a hospital emergency room, told The Detroit News. — AP

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