Thursday, February 14, 2013

SENTIMENTAL VALENTINES

Today we're sharing about a special Valentine's Day or Moment that our parents shared.

PAULA GRAVES:   My father was notoriously cheap. He and my mom both grew up in the rural deep South during the Great Depression, so he knew how to pinch a penny or two. Nor was he demonstrative. He had a pragmatic, stoic outlook on life, with little patience for foolishness and sentiment. So you might think that Valentine's Day around my house was a forgotten holiday.

Not true, although my father observed it in his own unique way. One year, he bought my mother a Valentine's Day card and gave it to her the morning of Valentine's Day. My mother, not particularly sentimental herself, thanked him and set the card down, losing track of it at some point during her busy day. She thought nothing of it again—until the next year, when my father gave her the exact same card. Not another card just like it, mind you. The exact SAME card.

The same thing happened that year, my father not being obvious about it as he nicked the card and hid it away for another year. From that day forward, until his death in 2002, he gave my mother that same card for Valentine's day. It was their thing, and my mother still speaks with love of that quirky little gesture of his to this day.

For an unsentimental man, his Valentine's Day ritual was the height of romance. I think his unique style of expressing affection has influenced my own view of what's romantic, and how romantic gestures can be deeply individual, rooted in a person's history and personality.

MALLORY KANE: My parents fell in love at first sight, and they were in love for almost sixty-two years. They were not just comfortable with each other, or merely tolerant of each other's faults. They were in love, with all the passion and heartache that wildly emotional state entails.

My father was always more of a tease than a romantic. For example, the first time he and my mother ever spoke to each other was after World War II, when Daddy had just returned from Japan. He was driving his brother's brand new car through town when he saw my mother go into a furniture store. Pulling over, he jumped out of his car and managed to slip inside the store right behind her. My mother, planning to move into an apartment, asked the store owner to show her the twin bedroom set she had admired the week before.
           
My father, a mere passing acquaintance, stepped up beside her and said, "Now Maude, we are not sleeping on twin beds." They were married three months later, and, they did sleep on one of the twin beds until they could afford a double bed. Until the day my mother went into the hospital they still slept in the same bed.

At age seventy-eight, my father had open heart surgery. My seventy-six year old mother spent every night at the hospital, and every day beside his bed.

The first thing my joking, teasing father said when they removed the tracheal tube from his throat was this. "Maude, you know what that doctor found when he cut me open? He found your name engraved on my heart."

There is nothing more romantic than everlasting love. This Valentine's Day, may you find the everlasting love you deserve, whether it's the love of a spouse, a parent, a child, a pet or even love for yourself.

ANGI MORGAN:  My dad always said he saw my mom and fell in love with her at that moment. Yellow roses meant a lot to them. Without fail, he always sent them on her birthday and red roses on Valentine's Day. He planted yellow roses at both bedroom windows to remind her he loved her all year long. My dad passed away in 1998. My mom planted a yellow rosebush near him.




VALENTINE'S Day was the last day to vote on your favorite cover and your favorite blurb. Two lucky winners won an Amazon.com and a Barnes & Noble $25.00 gift card. Vote so your name will go in the hat. (winners chosen)

We'd love to hear if your parents had a special romantic day they shared. Please share.

6 comments:

  1. I think every day is Valentines for my parents. Still in love. Perhaps more than ever.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NO romance with my parents. They were 40 and 42 years older than I and appeared much older at times. Throughout my childhood my mom would tell me that she didn't sleep with dad because they grew apart when I was born. (I was born with a hole in my heart and spent most of my first 4.5 years at a children's hospital 100 miles away. When I WAS home, I had to sleep downstairs so that when I cried and phlegm came up my throat and gagged me, she could phone the doctor and have him resuscitate me quickly in the middle of the night. I outgrew it all by 4.5 years of age, though....) My mom always handed me to my elder sister (by 15 years) to hold when I wanted "up". She hated contact with any of us. And kissing her goodbye? She actually cringed when we did so.
    Imagine my surprise when I was 39 years of age and mom had died 4 years previously and dad died 9 years previously: our family found out that my brother (5 years my elder) and I were born as a result of a longstanding affair my mom had had with the guy across the street! (There's no doubting it; we look like him, and his entire family had been told years ago by my bio dad that we were his kids, complete with showing our pictures through the years. When he died 16 years before my mom, he left his life insurance, motor home, car, house, and all other assets to my mom, knowing that after she and my dad died, everything would be split between her four chidlren.) There's no doubt in my mind that *I* was not the cause of my parents sleeping apart, but my mom did enjoy laying guilt trips on all of her kids through the years.
    Aren't you sorry you asked now? Seriously, though, what this has meant to me is showing my own kids and husband how much each are loved for who they are, every day of the year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WOW GIRLFRIEND !!
      Glad you survived that. Sounds like a movie and perfect background for an Intrigue staring you.
      ~Angi

      Delete
  3. What touching stories, I love hearing stories like that. My real dad died when I was 8 so I don't remember him and my mom celebrating anything for Valentine's Day. My step-father came along when I was 15 and he always treated my mother like she was the light of his life. He was always buying her flowers for the house and the yard. He was one of a kind. We lost him two years ago, I really miss him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Such a great Memory~!~
      I'm so glad you had that example in your life.
      ~Angi

      Delete