A Valentine

Dear Michael,

You are such a romantic at heart. :) I love that about you! I was looking through your Ipod a couple of nights ago, I am slowly learning to use the thing and looking through each ap to see if there is anything you wrote or left in it. One of the aps is called "Love Poems". I had to laugh a little when I saw that one. I remember you downloading it and reading a couple of them to me. It wasn't too long ago. I would guess it was in June...

Well, when I opened up that ap there was the last poem you had looked up. I remember you reading it to me and liking it then. But it has much more significance now. I read it and it was almost like you had left it just for me to find. Thank you so much for this sweet valentine.

A Valentine to My Wife

by EUGENE FIELD

Accept, dear girl, this little token,

And if between the lines you seek,

You'll find the love I've often spoken

The love my dying lips shall speak.

Our little ones are making merry

O'er am'rous ditties rhymed in jest,

But in these words (though awkward very)

The genuine article's expressed.

You are as fair and sweet and tender,

Dear brown-eyed little sweetheart mine,

As when, a callow youth and slender,

I asked to be your Valentine.

What though these years of ours be fleeting?

What though the years of youth be flown?

I'll mock old Tempus with repeating,

"I love my love and her alone!"

And when I fall before his reaping,

And when my stuttering speech is dumb,

Think not my love is dead or sleeping,

But that it waits for you to come.

So take, dear love, this little token,

And if there speaks in any line

The sentiment I'd fain have spoken,

Say, will you kiss your Valentine?


This poem reminded me of the way that you used to jokingly ask me "Will you marry me?" over and over again. You would pop down on one knee or leave me a note, or just wisper it in my ear while we were doing the dishes together. This continued for our entire marriage. I always answered the same as I will for your final question... "Again and again and again!" It was our little joke but I always meant it. I would marry you again and again if I could. There was a time during some of my really bad days that I wondered if I would have chosen not to have married and loved you in order to avoid the pain I have had to feel at losing you. The answer came to me quickly. It was a resounding no! I am so glad for the five short years we had together. I would do it all over again even knowing how it ended. But that is just it, it isn't the end. I get you for eternity. So yes Michael, I will kiss my Valentine. Again and again as soon as I am with you on the other side of the veil... and hopefully in my dreams before then! I am so glad to know that your love is "not dead or sleeping" and that you are anxiously waiting for our reunion too.
I love you so much!
Jenny