Signed, sealed, delivered

Lynn said yes.

It was bold, but Chris Delby was willing to wear his heart on his sleeve - and post his marriage proposal to Lynn Schnur on his employer's towering reader board - for the woman he loves.

Trumpeted to all the U.S. 2 traffic driving past Western Building Center's Evergreen store, the query went up on Friday night: "Lynn, Will U marry me? Chris."

"I got a lot of calls," Delby said this week. Co-workers at Western Building, where they call Delby "The Tool Man," had told him he had a whole list of Lynns calling to say yes.

"Somebody said I'd better hurry up and pick one," he said. "I told them I already did, and I picked the best one. In fact, God picked her for me."

The billboard message was there just to provide a few laughs for his betrothed, Delby said. Schnur, a certified nurse assistant in Kalispell Regional Medical Center's rehabilitation department, already had sealed the deal on her own front porch, with Delby on bended knee and a bouquet of flowers in his hand.

Then on Friday night, when he was ready to go public with the proposal, "I said we were going for a little drive," Delby said. "I drove her by it and she just started laughing."

For the next half-hour, the couple sat in the Western Building parking lot, text-messaging and sending photos to friends and family.

"I think of these things constantly," he said. "Just one thing after another that I can do for her to bless her life. That's all I'm made for, it seems."

Delby's and Schnur's story could be a scene from a fairy tale.

In fact it was the 1987 fairy-tale movie, "Princess Bride," that gave them their new catch phrase, "This is true love - you think this happens every day?"

Their tale started five years ago.

Schnur's husband, Ken, was a friend and co-worker with Delby at Western Building Center's store in south Kalispell. Ken Schnur knew he was dying of cancer and, being a steadfast man who thought first of his family and providing for their needs, asked Delby if he would look in on her from time to time in case she needed any help. Delby gave his word.

At the October 2003 funeral, Delby told Schnur he would be calling on her. "You'll be calling on me?" he remembered her saying with some surprise.

"Sometimes things don't come out like you want them to," he said. He reassured her he meant nothing improper, but was a bit too embarrassed to call for a while.

After a difficult five years of his own, Delby, 53, finally felt free to place that call.

Eight weeks ago, he arranged a dinner at his home with friends. Schnur, 55, was happy to attend as one of those friends - but said she had no other expectations of the evening.

It went well.

"On our second date we opened up completely," Delby said. "Neither one of us could believe we opened up so readily to each other. It was beyond anything we could have imagined."

Since then it's been constant texting, steady companionship, early morning Bible studies.

"It's amazing. I had given up," he said. "I tried the dating thing. Everybody has walls built around them. I just said I'd give up, I'd just finish raising my girls and after that, who cares?"

But that changed over eight weeks. "I couldn't help it," he said of their decision to make it permanent. "And she felt the same."

Schnur's daughter Amber, 26, was thrilled. Delby's children - Hannah, 21, Elizabeth, 19, Emma, 18, and Katherine, 16 - were delighted at the prospect of their marriage, and of having Amber for a stepsister.

Delby was walking on air.

But he wanted to go a step further. He was grateful to his boss, store owner Craig Maltby, when he agreed to let Delby put up the message announcing their joy to the world.

Next up? The big day is planned Nov. 15 at New Covenant Fellowship.

No reader board required.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com