It all began so romantically.
Ten years ago today, fed up of being single, I decided to throw caution to the wind and send an anonymous Valentine’s e-card to a colleague at work. I sent it from a hotmail address which didn’t identify me as the sender and waited to see what would happen. I got a response along the lines of thanks and who is this? I wasn’t giving anything away and gave this guy a week to discover my identity, sending him one clue everyday.
Well he followed the trail of clues which led him to me and our first date a week later….and….
Reader, I married him….
I have always wanted to say that line!
Fast forward ten years later, through many, many ups and downs, both huge life-changes and challenges and mundane everyday stuff, and here we are – he in one county, me in another (temporarily parted by work).
Today there are no hearts or flowers, chocolates or romantic candle-lit dinners. That Valentine’s card and his response was the one and only time we ever did anything quite so romantic. But it doesn’t matter, for I don’t need those things to let me know that he is still my Valentine. He has stood by me through breast cancer, through failed attempts to get pregnant, through two miscarriages and hasn’t managed to drown yet in the river of tears that have been shed in the past few years. Over and over he shows me the truth of these lines from Victor Hugo
“The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves”
So how about you? How will you spend today? Share your Valentine’s love story in the comments below.
