This story was previously published on EloraFergusToday.
ELORA – It was like something out of a Hallmark movie in a town that also resembles a Hallmark movie for a Toronto couple’s proposal.
It wasn’t at the scenic Elora Gorge, the romantic Elora Mill or any of the typical picturesque Elora spots but at the Elora Library branch, where Asif Zahir popped the question to Moska Rokay using a picture book he created to help along the way.
The couple live in Toronto but told EloraFergusToday in a phone interview a date in Elora just following a pandemic lockdown was one the very first times they spent a considerable amount of time together.
Rokay, a PhD student, was doing a research project on the history of Muslims in Canada. Through her research, she found there was evidence that a Scottish family who converted to Islam had settled in a small town in Ontario, possibly Elora, in the 1800s.
“I was very excited when my first hypothesis led me potentially to Elora … he also enjoys history so it was one of the things we bond over and he just said ‘let’s go, let’s go see Elora ... where’s this small town?’” Rokay explained. “That was our first time visiting Elora. I fell in love with this town since then.”
Rokay later learned her Elora hypothesis was incorrect but the two of them spent the day walking in town and this early date gave Zahir the idea to propose there years later.
“She really likes libraries,” Zahir said.
“I read a lot, libraries are my sort of safe spaces,” Rokay added. “I always find a second home in the library.”
Years later, Zahir planned a proposal at the Elora Library and reached out to staff in January.
He had written a children’s picture book called The Start of Our Beginning and had it drawn and printed to aid with the proposal.
“It’s about two cats and these cats go on these adventures and then they fall in love and the boy cat takes the girl cat to a library in Elora … at the end the boy cat proposes to her,” Zahir said. “The adventures they go on are pretty much the dates and the timeline of our relationship.”
It was April 6 when Zahir took Rokay to Elora under the pretense of an author friend of theirs launching her newest book, which was actually the story Zahir wrote, in a reading at the library.
“It wasn’t too far in (to the reading) until Moska realized it was about us,” Zahir said.
Rokay was already emotional while hearing the story but got a big surprise at the end of the book with the cat proposing. She turned around and Zahir was doing the same thing.
“I was shocked, I was crying, I cried more and I said 'yes',” Rokay said.
Friends began popping out from behind the shelves where they were hiding and watching the whole time for an added surprise.
Rokay said she realized the gravity of how much work had gone into the proposal and everyone involved from the library staff, the illustrator and all the friends that took the two hour drive to Elora for the moment.
“I didn’t think he would propose like this and I was extremely touched,” Rokay said.
A recent library board report included an excerpt from Elora branch supervisor Danielle Arial who called the event “one of the highlights of my professional career.”
“It was a magical event for the patrons and staff alike,” she wrote.
Elora will now hold an even more special place in the hearts of the couple. They left a copy of the book at the Elora library with an inscription that reads:
To the Elora Library,
We want to dedicate this book of our love story to you wonderful people, especially Danielle. Thank you so much for everything!
Sincerely,
Asif + Moska
