My valentine
Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Hope you get to spend some time today or tonight with someone special!
While I will not deviate from my normal approach of not using names of family in these posts, I want to devote today's space to my wonderful wife, to whom I've been married almost 34 years.
Back in the golden age of movies, romantic comedies always included a "meet-cute," an endearing and unexpected way that the couple whom the movie concerns first meet. I know this because the Eli Wallach character in "The Holiday" was once a studio bigwig and said so!
Anyway, the "meet-cute" for me and my wife was in a video store that I was managing MANY years ago. And unlike Blockbuster or the other chains, this one had all of the videotape boxes behind a counter, with the idea that a staff member could recommend or at least explain a movie to a customer.
I happened to be working on a snowy weekday afternoon when this nice and friendly woman entered the store, and she immediately gravitated to the children's section. I made my way to that area, near the front of the store, exchanged pleasantries, and asked "what kind of movies do your kids enjoy? I assume you have kids, correct?"
Her response: "I do. Want to share?" That was a joke more than an offer, since the kids were home for a snow day and she was on her lunch hour trying to find something to entertain them while she was at work the following day. We chatted a bit, she set up a rental account and left with two or three videos.
There was something about her, nothing I could specifically put my finger on, but I felt it all the same. So I violated professional protocol (and probably company policy) and called her a couple of evenings later. I learned that she was a young widow with an 11 year old girl and an 8 year old boy. She more or less protested that she was too old, that she had "these kids" and that I "shouldn't get mixed up with someone like me." That last part was an interesting way to put it, since it wasn't as though she was involved in organized crime or something equally nefarious.
I was disappointed, to say the least. So imagine my surprise about ten days later when she walked in, big smile on her face, "just to say hello," she said. Hmmmm.....
Another heavy snow fell on Lexington (worth noting that it was more than five inches, which is "heavy" by Lexington standards) that Saturday, so I called her that evening, and we spent hours on the phone. That was our first date, by my reckoning, as we learned a lot about each other much as we would have out in the world somewhere. She invited me to come to her home for dinner to meet her kids one evening the next week.
And we've been together ever since, married the following year. And it's been just like the wedding vows said it would be, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.
I wouldn't trade our years together for anything.
While I will not deviate from my normal approach of not using names of family in these posts, I want to devote today's space to my wonderful wife, to whom I've been married almost 34 years.
Back in the golden age of movies, romantic comedies always included a "meet-cute," an endearing and unexpected way that the couple whom the movie concerns first meet. I know this because the Eli Wallach character in "The Holiday" was once a studio bigwig and said so!
Anyway, the "meet-cute" for me and my wife was in a video store that I was managing MANY years ago. And unlike Blockbuster or the other chains, this one had all of the videotape boxes behind a counter, with the idea that a staff member could recommend or at least explain a movie to a customer.
I happened to be working on a snowy weekday afternoon when this nice and friendly woman entered the store, and she immediately gravitated to the children's section. I made my way to that area, near the front of the store, exchanged pleasantries, and asked "what kind of movies do your kids enjoy? I assume you have kids, correct?"
Her response: "I do. Want to share?" That was a joke more than an offer, since the kids were home for a snow day and she was on her lunch hour trying to find something to entertain them while she was at work the following day. We chatted a bit, she set up a rental account and left with two or three videos.
There was something about her, nothing I could specifically put my finger on, but I felt it all the same. So I violated professional protocol (and probably company policy) and called her a couple of evenings later. I learned that she was a young widow with an 11 year old girl and an 8 year old boy. She more or less protested that she was too old, that she had "these kids" and that I "shouldn't get mixed up with someone like me." That last part was an interesting way to put it, since it wasn't as though she was involved in organized crime or something equally nefarious.
I was disappointed, to say the least. So imagine my surprise about ten days later when she walked in, big smile on her face, "just to say hello," she said. Hmmmm.....
Another heavy snow fell on Lexington (worth noting that it was more than five inches, which is "heavy" by Lexington standards) that Saturday, so I called her that evening, and we spent hours on the phone. That was our first date, by my reckoning, as we learned a lot about each other much as we would have out in the world somewhere. She invited me to come to her home for dinner to meet her kids one evening the next week.
And we've been together ever since, married the following year. And it's been just like the wedding vows said it would be, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.
I wouldn't trade our years together for anything.
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