By Todd Starnes
A few months ago Bryce Maine was sitting around a table in Eufaula, Alabama making plans for the high school prom.
“I asked my nanny who she went to prom with and she said she’d never been,” the 18-year-old senior told me.
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Bryce was a bit surprised that his grandmother – his nanny – had never gone to prom.
“Every woman deserves to go to a prom,” Bryce said.
And from Bryce’s perspective there was no one more deserving than his sweet grandmother, Catherine Maine.
“She’s my world. She’s been with me ever since I was born,” he said. “She’s basically the only woman figure I have in my life. She means a lot to me.”
So Bryce set about to concoct an elaborate plan to ask his nanny to the big dance and on February 18th – he popped the question.
“I was at school and I texted her – and told her she needed to come up here because I wasn’t feeling too well,” he recounted. “I told the lady at the front desk so she would know to sign my nanny in as a visitor.”
Bryce was standing in the hallway holding a homemade sign that read, “Prom.”
“It’s so nice that he wanted me to go but I kept asking – don’t you want to take someone else, but he kept saying no, I want my nanny,” Mrs. Maine told television station WXTX.
Nanny said yes – but unfortunately the school’s principal said no. It turns out only people under the age of 21 are allowed at the junior-senior prom.
“For the 10 years I have been high school principal, we have denied requests each year from students asking to bring older dates to prom,” Principal Steve Hawkins wrote in a statement to the television station. “We do not chance leaving any stone unturned when it comes to safety. Most high schools have an age limit for prom attendees.”
The Maine family is heartbroken – to say the least. Nanny had even purchased a lovely evening gown for the occasion.
Bryce’s cousin posted a message on Facebook blasting the school’s decision – and that posting as since gone viral – along with a very clever hashtag: #LetNannyGoToProm.
There are reports the school board might be meeting next week to reconsider the ban. So it might be helpful if our good readers made a phone call on his behalf!
“I’m just trying to stand up for my nanny,” Bryce told me.
But since the school has banned his grandmother, the high school football player says he will not be attending either.
But prom night won’t be a total loss – thanks to the fine folks at the Eufaula Country Club. They’ve invited Bryce and his nanny to join them for a delicious meal on April 8th.
And Bryce also plans to take his nanny out onto the dance floor.
“I picked out some of the songs she liked from back in the day – a lot of Elvis,” he said.
Well, I suspect the King of Rock and Roll would have some mighty nice things to say about Bryce Maine – a fine Southern gentleman who loves his nanny.
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All photos courtesy of Bryce Maine