Valentine's Day or is it Valentine Day?

I have a tendency to forget this day set aside to tell loved ones how I feel about them. However, my sweetheart of many years never forgets. I learned a long time ago how easy it is to say I love you. But I wish I had learned much sooner. In my childhood home, no one said those words. It was just too, too embarrassing to express that kind of emotion. Now I make up for those years. If I love you, you know it! And I don't wait until Valentine's Day to say it.

Valentines are important to my family history. When my mother was in fourth grade she received a beautiful hand-made valentine from the boy who would grow up and be the man she married. Before that day, she never knew he noticed her. He quietly admired her from afar. The letters he wrote her in later years express so well his deep and abiding love which bound them together for sixty-two years. I see it in his letters, and she always knew he loved her, but I never heard him say those words out loud to anyone.

Perhaps it is good to have a day set aside to say I love you. Today I saw a young man with his girl friend in an upscale restaurant in Atlanta. He carried a wrapped present tied with a ribbon attached to a red balloon. The girl was all smiles. He had taken her out for a special Valentine lunch, and the box contained a certain dessert he bought for another special lady - his mother. A young man who is not afraid to show his love for his girl and for his mother, now he's a keeper.