JOPLIN, Mo. — Early on Christmas morning, everyone in a southwest Missouri city knew that Philip Myers had proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Racritia Hobson — except Hobson, that is.

She woke up that day and noticed that Myers, who is normally not an early riser, was already up and about. Other things were awry, too. Her phone wasn’t sitting next to her watch on the nightstand. Her iPad was propped up in the corner of her kitchen at a curious angle. And she had cleaned the house, top to bottom, the night before, yet The Joplin, Missouri Globe’s Sunday edition was sitting in the center of the coffee table.

Still, she said she didn’t give it much thought as there was a lot to do. Later that morning, when wrapping her Christmas gift to Myers, he asked her if she had seen the paper.

He flipped it open to page 5C. That’s when she saw the photos of herself, of their 10 years together, of the two of them as babies. She saw her name in big letters. She said she knew what it meant but couldn’t make herself skip to the last line of the four paragraphs on the page.

She began to read his letter to her, silently at first. At the end of the second paragraph, she started to read aloud.

By the time she got to the line, “FINALLY, Will You Marry Me?” Myers had dropped to one knee, pulled the ring out of his pajama pocket and looked up at her.

After a moment or two of shock and lots of tears, she said, “Yes.”

“It was the best moment of my life,” Hobson said.

Myers said he had been trying to find a way to ask Hobson to marry him for six months, ever since he bought her the ring. He also said he wanted to make sure family members could be a part of the proposal and that it would happen at a time that they would all be together.

“I wanted all the attention to be on Racritia, what a great person she was and how much I love her,” Myers said.

In September, Hobson had been featured in the paper for helping a co-worker at a local elementary school raise money to combat cancer. Myers’ best friend, knowing that many of their family members are subscribers, mentioned that proposing to her in the newspaper might be the best way to go.

Myers said that by using the newspaper he would be able to reach out to everyone who loved them and let them know the couple appreciated them. He said he didn’t want to go viral or do anything digital.

“We are younger, but we’re also old-school,” Myers said.

He said the first time he called the paper he was so excited and nervous that he couldn’t talk. He wrote multiple drafts of what he wanted printed and had his sister, a communications major, proofread the message.

“If I could have done the whole paper, I would have done that, too,” Myers said. His friend and his sister were the only two who knew what he was up to, he said.

Early on Christmas morning, he bought a copy of the paper and placed it on the table and set up the iPad to tape the event.

“I knew he was going to do something extravagant, but I didn’t know he was going to do anything like that,” Hobson said through tears.

At 7 a.m., Hobson’s grandmother, the earliest riser in the family, was the first person to know of the proposal and tried to call her. For the next three hours, other family members and friends tried to call, too.

Myers said he knew that their family would be “more excited than anyone,” so he thought ahead. After Hobson went to sleep he took her phone, turned it off and hid it under the bed.

Hobson said when she turned her phone on later, she had dozens of missed calls and upward of 20 text messages.

While reading Myers’ proposal, Hobson said her mind went to memories of them growing up together. For her, the best part was when she read, “In my wildest dreams, I could have never imagined a woman more perfect than you, and I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else.”

“That really hit me because I think he’s the most perfect man,” Hobson said. “I feel the exact same way about him.”

Up next?

The couple say they are planning a summer wedding.

Thomas writes for the Joplin, Missouri Globe.