My Mum has a small red string bundling some old valentines with poetic verses tucked in them, written by my father in their early years of marriage. She kept them in a footstool — the cushion could be removed revealing a hideaway storage in the small boxed frame of the stool.
MiLady also has a bundle of valentines and romantic verses that I wrote for her (and continue to do so) going back to when we were engaged. I have absolutely no idea where she keeps them, but they are somewhere in the bedroom.
I strongly believe that every married woman has such a collection tucked away somewhere, don’t you?
But, my question to the ladies is this: Do you have a valentine (or valentines) that you received from your husband, BEFORE he was your fiancé/ husband?
My mother does not have any cards before she married my father, and MiLady has a couple from when we were engaged but I know of one woman that received a valentine from her future husband – my maternal grandmother, Grace!
My grandfather, James Henry had given it to her (in 1933), hoping that it would win him another chance to see her again — or better still get a kiss! (They were married in 1934.).
The card was red and valentine-shaped. It flipped open at the base point. It was trimmed in lace, and a silhouette of a young lady (similar to a cameo) was situated in the center. “Be My Valentine” was in script beneath the cameo.
The verse inside I do not remember, it has been too many years since I saw it.*
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*It went missing in 2001, when I moved from Ontario to Alberta, along with a 1902 birth certificate from England, 3 WWI and 6 WWII military records.
For my wife, MiLady 2013
How awful to lose such family treasures in your house move. Hope you and MiLady had a good Valentine’s Day
Thank you, Jo — yes, we did; and we both hope that yours was equally, if not more so, memorable.