Won't You Be Mine?

Valentine's Day has always been a special day for me.

My Mamaw McConnell was born on Valentine's Day--hence her name---Thelma Valentine Hammond McConnell. She had a granddaughter born on the same day, too---my cousin, Kelly Ann McConnell.

I remember the excitement of elementary school days when we decorated our mail bags or boxes to hold the many valentines that we would receive from our classmates. Sandy Geiger always got me, Melissa Lane Campbell and a couple of other gals a red heart-shaped box of chocolates. I looked forward to his gesture of kindness every year.

The steeple on our church was set on February 14th because I remember watching its installation from my second grade classroom (Mrs. Watterson's class) during our party.

This past week has been filled with excitement of Valentine activities, worksheets, crafts, etc. The children got to have their only party of the school year and open their Valentines.

Rosy and I made reservations at Miss Bea's for her annual Valentine Dinner. It was a nice quiet cozy atmosphere with only 15 people--her capacity. Wow, what a wonderful dinner!

This afternoon he came in with a single rose for each of his girls. Maggie's was white and mine was red. He also gave me a beautiful corsage to wear. When he gave it to me he said, "It wouldn't be right for you to go unadorned tonight!"---to quote Gomer Pyle when he was going to take Thelma Lou's cousin, Mary Grace Gossage, to a dance. You just have to know that Andy Griffith episode to really understand how special this was.

Those two little roses are better than any dozen he could have even sent to me. I'll remember that corsage (make that a long "a" as in the herb sage. That's the way Gomer pronounced it.) for a long time because I was the ONLY one at dinner who was adorned!

Happy Valentine's Day!