Valentine Award

This year, Valentine's Day was very good for me, and that's saying something! No, actually, it was/is FANTASTIC!!!

This year, I had my lovely daughters to dote on, friends to dance with (our west coast swing club meets on Thursday nights) and exchange cards/gifts with, a husband to pamper and be pampered by (we are having a COUPLE'S MASSAGE tomorrow! WOW!), and something else that was just the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

My younger daughter, Miss A., has a boyfriend. She is a fourteen year old freshman. I know, I know. But I've been open minded, open-eyed, and open-eared. And our motto for boyfriends is that they are boys, who are friends, and who add something happy to life--no drama allowed. The short version, "If it's not fun, it's not worth it." Not in high school. Heck, not ever. But you get the idea anyway.

So this boy, Prince R., has been nothing but dreamy with my little girl, and, reader, they will have been "going out" for FIVE MONTHS before February closes. So, always and ever watchful, I was waiting to see how Valentine's Day turned out. Mostly because this young lad is a gift giver...genuinely, thoughtfully so.

She got a bevy of classis Valentine's adornments: a dozen red roses, a bear clutching a cloth red rose with a small mylar balloon and a small bag of chocolates, and also a one pound Hershey's chocolate bar. But there was one more thing, and this is the thing that I just thought was so wonderfully sweet.

Apparently, earlier in the week, Miss A. had been complaining of feeling "ugly." Now, this is more of a state of mind than anything, sometimes we call it feeling "wimpy." Miss A. has given up makeup application for Lent. Earlier in the week, she had a prominent zit and was feeling red-nosed and under the weather, and she would normally use a little cover up and move on, but she couldn't, so she was feeling a little self-conscious, and telling her boy who is a friend about it. She did, however, admit that, "Mom, I was exaggerating a little bit." For some sympathy. This mother understood her daughter's very feminine dilemma.

So anyway, Prince R. of course told her to "Stop it!" Happily telling her that not only did he think she was beautiful, but that he bet just about anybody at school would sign a petition declaring her to be the most beautiful girl ever. (Ok, so am I a sap? I can't help but wonder what his parents must be like together for this young man to be so sensitive and complimentary...and communicative!) So anyway, Miss A. told him to stop and that was that. Or so she thought.

Yesterday, he had a mysterious paper hanging out of his pocket. When asked about it, he said it was an unfinished poem and she could not see it. Then she witnessed him showing "the poem" to other people! She even saw people writing on it. She decided, oh well, he'll show me eventually and forgot about it.

After lunch, and before they parted ways for the rest of the school day, he handed it to her. And lo and behold, it was the petition signed by about twenty of their girl and guy friends.

I got to hear the story on the way home. She pulled out the piece of paper and was smiling and smiling at it.

"What's that?" her sister, Miss Z. asked.

"Nothing," she smiled.

Looking over her shoulder from the backseat, Miss Z. said, "It looks like a bunch of signatures."

"Yeah, it is. Ok, so this is what happened..." She was giggling and beaming at the end.

Her story just made me smile too. What a great gift of affection and appreciation, no?


© Nicole J. Williams, 2007, all rights reserved.