by:  Linda Law

     My husband was born on Valentines Day, so I was in for a surprise once we were married!  He would grin and wait for all his "gifts" on Valentine's Day from me and the kids and anyone else who felt they owed him a gift... mom and some of his siblings.   The day would come and go, and I'd wait for my Valentine....wait and wait.. then before bed I'd ask..."where is my Valentine?" and he would laugh and his big dimples would look like he was that fat ole cheshire cat!!!  "I'm your Valentine honey" he would say, and I'd get so darn mad.   After a few years of this, I got the message, and didn't expect anything special; although I must admit...he sure made up for every other day in my life with little gifts and thoughtful cards and romantic surprises. 

    The last eight or nine years of our life together, the kids were grown and the grandchildren took up most of our time, so we were more able to give each other things than when they were all younger.  We came to call our later years as the Romantic Years...the time we had finally come to appreciate and value so much in life!   Those years are when he began sending me a beautiful bouquet of Yellow Roses for Valentine's, because Yellow are my favorites ones!  Always there would be a nice dinner and sometimes another special gift, such as a bracelet, or a locket, or charm, or new outfit.  The best part of the day would always be just our being together, and he would always remark about how funny he thought it had been those early years when he made it a point NOT to give me anything on that one day...Valentine Day!   I didn't think it was so darn funny, but then he'd grin and I'd melt as always!

   He died in December and I was in a terrible stage of grieving, although I had decided to pour myself into my job, becoming so focused on work that I would go days without sleeping or eating properly. That January came and went, and then it was February, and I didn't even give Valentines Day a thought anymore...it was the last thing as far as I was concerned.  On that morning, February 14th, I walked into my office, and there sat this huge beautiful vase with Yellow Roses. 

My desk was cluttered with cards and gifts from employees and as I read the cards and opened the little gifts, I kept saying, "How did ya'll know about these flowers? It's so kind of you to get them for me"....  They just stared, and finally I read the card attached to the flowers.  "These flowers are sent with all the love I've had for you all these years.  I'm sorry I cannot be there to see your beautiful smile as you see them this morning."    No signature!  I knew they could not be from my love, he was gone.. and would never be with me on this earth again.

No one would admit to sending the flowers, and the next year came around, and almost the same thing happened once again!  For four more years I received a beautiful bouquet of Yellow Roses on Valentines Day.... and each year the card would read, "I will always love you"    period!  It didn't matter how much I investigated, called the florist, nothing and no one could explain this gift.   Each time I would leave the flowers on my desk so that I could see them and although they often brought tears to my eyes, they also brought me joy and smiles, and got me through some precious days.  My Valentine was gone....and he had been truthful when he would tell me all those years before, "I am your Valentine."

After I retired, I knew the flowers would stop arriving, and by then I had remarried....and although he was a good man, he was not the same thoughtful, loving man that I had lost after almost 30 years.  Ironically, he too began giving me Yellow Roses for different occasions, but it wasn't the same...not to me.  No longer did I receive those beautiful bouquets from the Beyond..... because by now I was certain that My love had found a way to see that I received them even in his absence! 

I'll probably never know where those Yellow Roses came from, or who was thoughtful enough to send them; but I stopped caring.....because to me... I knew the answer.  Angels abound around us, even when we can't see them.