I am sure all the flower shops have over ordered on roses, the chocolate shops are loaded with Godiva chocolates, and there are so many red hearts full of candy lining the shelves of department stores that NO ONE could miss this special day of love that is looming right in our sights. Why do we 
wait until February 14 to show our love and talk sweet words and “gain pounds from chocolate?”
Our very first Valentine’s Day after we married, my husband, being a single guy for all of 17 years, did not remember this sweetheart day ,and I was so distraught that I almost decided I had married a hard-hearted man. I remember his coming home for lunch and – no heart candy, no flowers.
I presumed he would bring this delightful gift to me when he returned that night. Wrong!
This was very important to my teenage heart. I believe that might have been our first really big disagreement. I just remember telling him how thoughtless he was and I remember crying off and on for hours. He was confounded as to why this would bother me so much. Most men are made up differently from the female. They think with their heads; we think with our hearts and my teenage heart was broken.
By the next morning I put on a happy face and decided to put it all behind me. When he came in for lunch he had the biggest red heart filled with chocolates I had ever seen and even a big Valentine card. He was forgiven and I was happy and he was overjoyed that he had been able to get this prize for half the price he would have paid the day before.
In the years following this incident, I always received one red rose for each year we were married. This gift lasted for twelve years and when he realized how much more than a dozen roses cost, he went right back to sending only one and telling me it was more “romantic.”
I can honestly say I love roses and I love love chocolate, but at this time in my life, I appreciate more a card in which he went into a store all by himself and looked through all the cards and picked out just the one he wanted me to have. Of course, writing what his heart feels on the card makes it most special. Love, love that has lasted for over 55 years makes my Valentine the Best!
My special recipe for Love
2 hearts full of love
2 heaping cups of kindness
2 armfuls of gentleness
2 cups of friendship
2 cups of joy
2 big hearts full of forgiveness
1 lifetime of togetherness
2 minds full of tenderness.
Stir daily with Happiness, Humor, and Patience. Serve with Warmth and Compassion, Respect, and Loyalty.
