Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!

Darrell and I were never much for making a big “to-do” over Valentines Day. Oh yes we would exchange a card and once in a blue moon a small token of some sort. We were pretty much sweethearts 365 days a year, so an actual day seemed rather insignificant in the scheme of things.

I was always a little envious of some of my friends whose husbands would send big beautiful bouquets of roses; and in the early years of our marriage it would kind of hurt my feelings. Once I made a remark about it to him, and his response was: “Flowers die, I'd rather give you something like a plant.” A plant! Come on, how romantic is a philodendron? I always thought that was pretty lame and just an excuse not to buy flowers. The one thing that Darrell would do, and that I could count on for Valentines Day every year, was a big banner made from butcher's paper, with his rendition of a stick man. I would be greeted in the morning with the banner hanging in the kitchen, the stick man, drawn to represent his self portrait, would have long arms stretched out to either side of his skinny stick body and a note underneath wishing me a Happy Valentines Day. Above the stick mans head would be a word cloud with the words: “I love you more!”

Looking back now those Valentine Days with no flowers, candy or jewelry seems unimportant, because to tell you the truth the only gift I recall was that he took time to make my Valentine banner.

We just never seemed to need “a day” to express our love for one another. He made every day a Valentines Day in the way that he always treated me with love, respect and kindness. In reality it's the things we did for each other every day that really mattered. Like when he would say:
“Honey, you've worked hard all day, instead of cooking dinner, why don't I just run and get Chinese?” Or, filling up my coffee cup and bringing it to me, without me asking him to. Or, covering me with a blanket when I fell asleep on the couch. Or, that unexpected hug – you know the kind, the one where you can feel the love coming through his arms. And, best of all, running into the house from outside because he could hear “our song” playing on the radio, just so we could dance to it.

So to all of you out there in cyberspace, I hope that you have someone in your life who makes every day you share feel like Valentines Day, the way that I did.