All he wanted for Christmas was a second chance with his first love.
Three years after his divorce and just six months after he started talking to his ex-wife again, Jeffrey Agan Sr. got down on one knee to propose all over again during their family's annual Christmas weekend get-together.
Agan, a 52-year-old registered nurse, was nervous enough gifting the poem he wrote for the occasion, "Love Burns Anew," to his ex, Lorrie, 51, in front of their eight kids and seven grandkids in his Bowling Green, Ohio, living room.
Little did the former (now current) couple know that a much wider audience would share in the moment after their son, Jeff Jr., posted a video of the proposal on Twitter.
By Tuesday morning, the video had already passed 10 million views.
"So many people are going through painful experiences," Jeff Agan Jr. told TODAY. "So, I think what's touched so many people about this video is there's definite proof with this video that true love exists.
And that true love eventually will find its way — sometimes it just takes a little while and there might be a couple of detours."
As for his dad, he wasn't thinking anything so grandiose in the moment: "I was incredibly nervous, more so than I would have expected," Jeff Sr. said by phone. "I was thankful I had the poem to speak for me so I didn’t have to say too much.”
He started speaking with Lorrie again earlier this year for the first time since their 2014 divorce ended their 25-year marriage on less than cordial terms. By November, the couple was dating again. "Our family was torn apart for a long time," recalled Jeff Jr. "I think its because they both took the opportunity to work on themselves and find themselves on their own path."
For Lorrie, that meant a spiritual path that included a visit to a Native American sweat lodge. Jeffrey, a former truck driver before going back to school for nursing, discovered poetry as an outlet for some personal mental health issues he wanted to tackle.
When they first got back together, their eldest son worried about putting too much hope on it lasting this time. "Initially, I was terrified," said Jeff Jr. "But every ounce of doubt and fear went away when I read what was going on in the room (on Friday morning). As soon as he had her placed in the middle of the room, I knew something was up.
"He looked really nervous. I thought, 'I know what you’re doing dad.'"
So the grabbed his phone quickly to capture the moment as his father handed his mother a gift-wrapped present — a framed copy of his proposal poem. "Is it a pizza," Lorrie can be heard asking on the video.
No, something much better.
Jeffrey Jr. didn't realize how much it would resonate with others until he turned his phone back on Sunday night after returning home from work and church, nearly 24 hours after posting his video on Twitter. "I was just blown away, I had to (do a) double take at first," he said. "I had hundreds of direct messages in my Twitter, and dozens of text messages and phone messages on my phone."
The Bowling Green State University student has since launched a GoFundMe campaign to help make his parents' second wedding even more special. He's already reached his $2,000 goal, mostly from strangers inspired by his family's story.
"Their first wedding was actually in an electronic store, and mom walked the escalator at the store, because my parents were too poor to afford a real wedding at the time," said Jeffrey Jr.
"I would like to give them a good wedding that they deserve."