Valentine

I've had the same Valentine since 1981.

When I think back to the first time I spied him outside his apartment in his rude boys thrift store jacket and jaunty brim, who would have known I'd found the love of my life?

But I had.

Hey - he had a hot car too.


Bob is a Valentine kind of guy.

He gives me flowers. This year a dozen red roses.

He usually gets me really big over-the-top corny cards that have lots of swooshes and mushy language.

This year it was a big heart shaped card that played "Can you feel the love tonight" from the Lion King.



One year he had roses delivered to me in Washington, DC in the middle of a blizzard. I'll never forget the delivery guy holding the big bouquet up high so he could make it through the snow.

Bob comes from a long line of steady Valentines. His father and mother have had the same Valentine for more than 50 years.

And Bob gets that mushy Valentine thing from his Mom, who specializes in corny, great cards with lots of double and triple underlines...and confetti.

Having the same Valentine for life is an incredible gift.

This Valentine's Day Pops is very sick. And here we all are - their 6 children and spouses, grandchildren, brothers, and friends all pulling together and feeling that pain...that exquisite pain that comes from love. But no one feels it more than Mom and Pops - the Valentines themselves.

All week 16 year old Dylan has been asking me and Bob for advice. What should he get his girl friend for Valentine's Day? He wanted it to be just right. He settled on a single rose, some chocolates from Stowaway Sweets and a cute card that has Charlie Brown on it.

It's a precious thing. A sensitive and thoughtful and romantic man is entering the world. And like his father and grandfather before him, he comes from a long line of Valentines.

And so on this Valentine's Day I want to send out all of my love and all my mushy, corny thoughts and rain them down like confetti on Mom and Pops.

Because they set the standard. And no matter what - the cancer, the lung disease, the hospital - whatever - it can never ever, ever take away from all of us...or the world...the incredible love that they created and instilled in all of us.

Here's that love - in Dylan's smile.