She unscrambled his Jumble puzzle proposal. Now, this NC couple will spell out ‘I D-O.’

As their romance grew, Bill Simmons and Jehanne Gheith found a shared obsession with the daily Jumble puzzle — a courtship built around a mutual fondness for unscrambling.

When Gheith was out of town, Simmons would photograph the Jumble portion of the News & Observer comics page and send it to his sweetheart by phone, where they could work it out together.

So last year, when it came time for the big question, Simmons easily struck on a proposal with his own unique brand: a handmade Jumble with a question for an answer: Will you marry me?

“I said ‘I don’t get this,’” Gheith recalled. “Bill said, ‘Don’t play with me.’ So I said, ‘Hmm ... four words, three, five, two. ... Then I didn’t finish the sentence. I just said, ‘Yes.’ “

The couple might have finished with word games right there, with their devotion deciphered.

But then they thought a small book of Jumbles would make a nifty item for their wedding gift bag. So Simmons sent an email to the only Jumble address he could find, explaining their puzzle-themed matrimony, hoping to buy some miniature versions of puzzle books for guests.

A wedding day surprise

This query brought more enthusiasm than either expected.

They got an email from David Hoyt, the game inventor who has authored the Jumble for 11 years, and he had some ideas.

What if he and cartoonist Jeff Knurek developed a Jumble specifically for them, featuring Gheith unscrambling the wedding puzzle, with a romantic punch line, and published it on their wedding day?

Could they send some pictures of themselves, and some more of the Greensboro bed-and-breakfast where the word-game proposal took place?

“They’re so adorable,” Hoyt told the N&O. “They’re addicted to the Jumble. I’m like, ‘I want to talk to these people.’ “

So on Saturday, when the bells ring out for the Chapel Hill bride and groom, their guests will see their engagement reenacted just below the comics, Gheith busily figuring as hearts swirl around the room.

“It’s a puzzle within a puzzle,” Hoyt raved. “It’s just adorable.”

And on into their life together, the two will keep Jumbling, uniting their strategies.

A data analyst, Simmons will likely skip the four clues and head straight for the big answer.

A humanities professor at Duke, Gheith will dash through the scrambled clues and be off to fetch coffee while Simmons continues to stew.

And together they will puzzle on, circling the letters L, O, V and E — the only ones that matter.

This story is part of our regular “On the Bright Side” feature. Got a suggestion for a story that will bring a smile to our readers? E-mail Josh Shaffer at jshaffer@newsobserver.com.

This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 11:11 AM with the headline "She unscrambled his Jumble puzzle proposal. Now, this NC couple will spell out ‘I D-O.’."