Love expressed on a special Valentine’s Day

Love expressed on Valentine’s Day

Love expressed on a special Valentine’s Day

In 44 years of marriage, my husband had never been moved to acknowledge Valentine’s Day. I was never really bothered by this, probably regarded it as an American thing anyway. But my husband had never been a demonstrative type of person; he was very down to earth, practical and pretty demanding.

Then suddenly 11 years ago, when my husband was suffering a terminal brain tumour, he decided he wanted to celebrate the day with a special lunch out, the two of us, together with my son and his newly wed wife. My son and I were extremely surprised, but went along with all the preparations that my husband wanted. A table was booked at a very up-market restaurant, I was ordered to buy some very special chocolates for the day, and we visited the local florist where my husband ordered 4 floral corsages for us ALL to wear.

The chocolates were duly purchased, very expensive handmade ones, and the morning of the luncheon, we visited the local shops to collect the corsages, when my husband first wanted to go ON HIS OWN to the little bookshop in town. Of course, he was no longer driving so I had to drive him in.

He left me to wait elsewhere, while he visited the bookshop, coming back a while later, saying he had to return a little later. We then went to collect the corsages, where my husband was extremely dismayed. They were nowhere near as big as he had wanted. The florist was shocked, but my husband insisted that he wanted them so many inches long (demonstrated) as that was what he had ordered. I slipped up close to the florist, and said: “give him what he wants, he has brain cancer, I’ll fix it up”. We then had to wait nearby for a while for this and he slipped back into the bookshop, returning soon after with a small brown paper parcel. We collected the now approved corsages, and made our way home to dress for this, to us all I guess, very important occasion.

It did feel strange with this great bouquet pinned to my front, you can imagine how my son felt, but my husband was absolutely delighted as we sat outside in the sunshine overlooking the sea. I’m sure fellow diners must have felt it was a bit weird as we all sat there bedecked, but my husband was not at all concerned.

We all had a lovely time out, it turned out to be a very special day. Then before my husband gave in and had a rest, he presented me with this little brown paper parcel. Inside was a little book 'A Token of Love – a little book of romance'. I was absolutely stunned, as I said, my husband was never demonstrative, never showed his feelings from the time we were married, certainly was not at all ‘romantic’. It is a beautiful little book of sayings and quotes about love and loving. One that stands out for me now is 'Of all earthly music, that which reaches farthest into Heaven is the beating of a truly loving heart'.

Nineteen days later my husband peacefully passed over. It was a blessed release for him. But we have the memory of that incredible St. Valentine’s Day when my husband found a way to do what he had never before been able to do, he found a way to express and celebrate the love he felt for me.

In the years since, through the presentations and books of Serge Benhayon, I have come to know that the love that everybody wants is already there; it is in us all from day one in our inner-hearts. Serge’s purple books are now my mainstay and I am now a very different person to the one of 11 years ago. I have made many discoveries regarding Love.

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  • By Beverley Croft, B.A. (Sociology)

    A shining example of the fact that it is never too late to change how one is living, to a life of amazing love and joy.