Happy Valentines Day - February 14

Officially we stopped celebrating Valentines Day many years ago after a really bad dinner at a very expensive restaurant. Not only was the dinner horrible, the service was abysmal. Every now and again my Sweetie remembers to bring home flowers and I remember to go out and buy a card. That doesn't mean we don't care and don't love...

To both of us the outward signs of love don't matter much, it's the every day things that we do for one another that are much more meaningful. He doesn't have to bring me flowers, it's not as important as taking me to the doctor today to get a cortisone shot for my foot because I couldn't walk any more. There are way too many small things that he does for me to list but he makes sure on a daily basis that my life is good. In return, I spoil him too and that's a good thing.

When I met this man on Valentines Day 1984 he was just passing through Toronto visiting his sister without any intention of staying. I was at an impromptu dinner at a friends home when he arrived with his friend. We weren't taken with each other, he thought I was much too flamboyant and I thought he was way too morose. We had coffee once more a week later just to be sure and still felt the same way. A couple of months later I heard he was still in town and helping his BIL do some work on a house for resale and being a Realtor was on that like a dirty shirt. I wanted that listing.

Well, I didn't get the listing but what I got instead was the man. You see, this time when I saw him again he smiled more, seemed happier and since I had just bought a new house that needed renovating I saw the bonus in getting to know him better. By July of that same year he was living with me and by December we had bought our first house together. It was in my name, how's that for trust.

Most of my friends at the time tried desperately to warn me off this man; he wasn't good enough for me, they said; he's just a carpenter, you deserve better seemed to be the general consensus. Good thing I didn't listen. In May of 1991 we married and now celebrate twice. In May we will be married 17 years and in July we will have lived together 24 years. Most of those friends are not my friends any more. They judged him by what he did for a living not for who he was. In 1996 I became ill and haven't worked since yet he never complained about supporting me even though I'm sure two incomes would have been better for us, he just took it all in stride and did what he had to do.

After my father died and my mother had lived alone for a couple of years and it was starting to be dangerous for her to do so, he didn't suggest looking for a seniors home, he suggested building an addition onto our house and moving my Mother in. She of course was thrilled, she loved him as if he were her son. He worked an entire summer to build her that room and was a happy man when she was comfortably settled with us. When he came home from work every day the first thing he would do is go into her room to see how she was.

That's the man my friends said wasn't good enough for me. I beg to differ and am grateful every day not only that we met but that I gave it another chance to develop. Oh yeh, I'm still flamboyant but he's no longer morose and I show my love by baking is favourite treats and knitting socks...

Happy Valentines Day to everyone, may love be good to you...