 
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 369
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Friday, February 13, 2009 - 6:34 pm: |    |
Peggy’s Valentine’s Day
Today is Friday, February 13. I bought the flowers (Red Roses mixed with Pink and White Carnations) yesterday and put them in the outdoor storage shed. I will sneak them in, early tomorrow and place them behind her chair in the living room.
This is what will happen on Valentine’s Day.
She will awaken in a semi -comatose state and stagger, barely, into her La-Z-Boy. She will ask me what day it is. I will tell her that it is, Saturday. A spark of cognition flares in her mind. She starts looking around the room. The old routine will begin anew.
Peggy: All right, where is it?
Me: Where is what?
Peggy: (witheringly) You know!
Me: I don’t know what on earth you are talking about.
Peggy: You know I will find them.
Me: Go ahead. I’ll fix your Metamucil Cocktail, Orange Juice, and Green Tea. They should help to get your juices going.
She spots the flowers. I anticipate her breathless sigh of rapture,,,and then,,,the trickle of happy, sparkling tears. Then she asks me where the Card is.
I reply, indignantly, “You know perfectly well where the Card is!”
She says, “I can’t pick it up anymore. It is too heavy..
Romantically speaking, I like to think of Valentine’s Day as a memoriam to that Sheikish Lover of the Silent Movie Era, Rudolph Valentino. Now bear with me, a little, and I will explain.
Certain holidays and Holy Days and sundry anniversaries, elicit spectacular memories from our personal past. Peggy and I, that is. Valentine’s Day is one of them.
I have a Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary that was originally published in 1928. I have a 1945 edition of same. It is not a dry, monotonous compilation of words describing other words. It is an exciting montage of descriptions that gives every word a sanctity and a simplicity that anyone can relate to.
My copy of the Funk and Wagnalls College Standard Dictionary, (NOT Standard College, because there is a big difference in the two) SCREAMS OUT at you when you open the front cover.
There, on the once, pristine, vacant fly leaf was the artistic prognostication of a love sick sixteen year old boy child. It is a Heart, drawn with pencil. There is a side of a second heart, partially hidden behind the full heart, . The obligatory arrow is shown to entwine the two hearts. The initials, T. O. and M. K. told the story. (M. For Margaret, hence, Peggy.)
The crux of the story is this. She always gets the same Valentine’s Card every year. It is always that crude , very unsophisticated, but fervent declaration of heartfelt love. Nothing will make her smile more, through a flood of tears than that fly leaf.
A couple of random thoughts:
Writing these words does not come easily. In the early years, the words would EXPLODE like a geyser. Now, they creep like snail.
We have discovered in the past 20 years or so that GETTING (emphasis on GETTING) OLD, is like the Eskimo’s putting their elders on an ice Floe and putting them out to sea. But here is the twist. Once you are on that Floe, and beyond saving, there is a ‘rush’ of,,,not resignation, but rather a sense of satisfaction and pleasure and fulfillment. There is nothing wrong with a full life.
I always write her a card/letter/valentine or what have you. Tomorrow I will tell her that I can’t find this one but I will search for it on the computer.
I hope this stays ‘posted’ long enough for her to enjoy her two or three minutes "in the sun."
P. S. One Man’s Valentine
From a newspaper Cartoon:
"The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others."
VINCENT VAN GOUGH |
Lodgedodger
Member
Username: Lodgedodger
Post Number: 1469
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Friday, February 13, 2009 - 6:39 pm: | |
Lovely.
Hubby sent me a dozen long-stemmed red roses in a beautiful crystal vase.
I'm so lucky. |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 3644
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, February 13, 2009 - 7:09 pm: | |
Peggy is one lucky gal to have the love of her life in her life for so many years. I wish the two of you many, many more Valentine days together.
Dodger - you're lucky too!
Don't know what's in store for me tomorrow!!! |
Bigb23
Member
Username: Bigb23
Post Number: 3814
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Friday, February 13, 2009 - 7:46 pm: | |
Tponetom -
I've been a "little" jaded in the past, but you warm my heart more than I thought possible.
Thanks. |
Maof2
Member
Username: Maof2
Post Number: 1402
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Friday, February 13, 2009 - 9:08 pm: | |
T - you are quite a gem and your Peg is one lucky gal! Love, hugs and smooches |
Kathleen
Member
Username: Kathleen
Post Number: 2183
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 1:48 pm: | |
Tponetom: What a wonderful story!! Best Valentine's Day wishes to you and Peggy!! |
Kathinozarks
Member
Username: Kathinozarks
Post Number: 1877
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 6:42 pm: | |
Happy Valentine's Day Peggy - and you too, Tpone.
My husband and I seem to have the same deep, abiding love that you two share. It is overwhelming sometimes. I pray that we have many years together as you two have. |
Lowell
Moderator
Username: Lowell
Post Number: 2201
Registered: 09-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009 - 9:42 pm: | |
Tponetom, you are a gem! |
Rickinatlanta
Member
Username: Rickinatlanta
Post Number: 257
Registered: 07-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009 - 10:56 pm: | |
I hope Belinda and I are fortunate enough to get to the point where you are now... |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 926
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 - 12:37 am: | |
I always enjoy reading your posts Tp. Maybe next year I'll get Valentines stuff to the "wife" and the girls on the 14th not the 15th. |
Islandman
Member
Username: Islandman
Post Number: 1960
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 - 1:52 am: | |
Tponetom,
Great stuff. You should have a column somewhere (maybe you do). Having someone to love like that is truly a thing to treasure.
Red, it's the thought that counts. |
|