A Valentine’s Day (and Everyday) Reminder

Hi all. I know it’s been a really long time since I’ve posted. Life…am I right?

I just wanted to post a thought here because we’re constantly reminded, but fail to really see the signs and it hit me like a semi-truck a little while ago.

I had run into Hwy 55 to order my lunch and then run next door to Lowe’s Foods to get everything I needed to make dinner for my wife for Valentine’s Day and some roses as well. I got the pork chops from the butcher (special cut), grabbed the green onions, apples, and potatoes from produce. I grabbed the hard cider from the beer isle and then the stone ground mustard. That’s right…she wanted Irish Pork Chops with Champ potatoes (one of her favorites). I grabbed some roses and paid the cashier.

Anyway, I went back to pick up my lunch and I hear the waitress talking to the cook about the elderly woman that just left. The waitress said, “I really just want to cry now. That was so sad.” I listened as she said that the elderly woman, we’ll call her Emma, was sitting in a booth, eating her lunch alone. As Emma stood up to leave, she spoke to the waitress and expressed sadness that she had no one to cook for her for Valentine’s Day anymore. It turns out, her husband had just died 6 months ago.

The waitress said, “I’m sure our cook would cook for you!” to which Emma replied, “I wonder if he really would if I asked.” Emma then just walked out he door and left. The cook said, “I would have cooked for her, of course I would have!” but Emma was long gone.

I heard this and started to tear up, thinking about spending my Valentine’s Day without my wife; not just alone like some friends I have who have not found someone with whom to spend their lives, but without my other half; without my soul mate, who had passed away and left me alone to live out the rest of my days.

I can’t imagine how that feels and I hope I never have to find out, but I had wished that I had been there a few moments earlier to offer to cook dinner for Emma in addition to my wife. I would have loved to have heard about her life and her life with her husband if it comforted her to talk about him. All I know is, that this was a life-lesson hitting me in the face and screaming, “Even if very few people read your blog, post this and remind them to remember what’s most important in life.”

Family. Family is the most important thing in life. Remember, today and every day, to not only love and appreciate those you love, but to show them how you feel. Life is fickle and human beings are fragile. A blink of an eye and it could all be gone. Life is too short not to spend it showing those for whom you care so much, just how much you love and care about them whether it be through food, drink, conversation, poetry, or something completely different.

Love your family and show them how much they mean on Valentine’s Day and every day for we will be gone far sooner than we realize.

Sláinte.