Coastal Granmother, Will You Be My Valentine?

Valentine’s Day is so romantic. It’s the one time of year when ` husbands and sweethearts don’t have to be reminded to bring us flowers, candy or maybe some “bling”. If you have followed my blog for long, you know my “hobby” is relating personalities to the “Seasons” in color analysis. As I have said many times, it’s uncanny how accurate it is! As a general rule, I have found “Summers” to be “romantics”. My husband, Wally, was a “Summer”, and, definitely, a romantic..

Blind Dates, Ugh

If you were at my husband’s “Celebration of Life” four years ago, you heard some of these stories, so just bear with me! I could not have honored him without telling the stories about him that I remember most. My husband was the only “blind date” I ever had. When friends would suggest “fixing me up” with someone they knew, I would “run”, literally. I had heard horror stories about blind dates, and I didn’t want any part of it.

Probably the only reason I agreed to a blind date with my husband was because, number one, it was suggested by a friend I totally trusted. Number two, she said he was a “great dancer”. I loved to dance and figured that alone would get me through one night. We went to see Duke Elllington and Tony Bennett in Washington, DC, and then dining and dancing. I knew it would be a dressy affair so my best friend, Cathie, and I had scoured our wardrobes to come up with an appropriate outfit. I guess it worked as my husband asked me out again for the next weekend.

We went to a Colt’s football game. They were still in Baltimore at that time and my husband was from Baltimore and had season’s tickets. He told me we would be going to a rather elite restaurant for brunch and then board a bus from there to the game. Again, Cathie and I spent hours trying to come up with an appropriate outfit. I had never been to a professional football game, so it was a challenge.

Merry Christmas

By now, it was coming up on the holidays, and Wally invited me to a formal party on Capitol Hill. You must understand that at the time I met Wally, I was a single mom in my twenties living paycheck to paycheck. I had somehow gotten by, between mine and Cathie’s wardrobes, with the first two dates, but formal, no way! I told Wally I already had plans. Being the resourceful person he was, he called June, our mutual friend. He asked her if I really had plans, or if I just did not want to see him again. June told him she thought it was because I did not have the appropriate attire for such an occasion.

When I got home from work the next day, the boxes from Saks Fifth Avenue were stacked up in front of my apartment door. There was the most beautiful long gown I had ever seen, long black satin gloves, black satin slippers, crystal earrings, and he had even rented a mink coat for me to wear. Talk about feeling like Cinderella! Even though he was thirteen years older, I fell for him that very day. No one had ever done anything like that for me. I knew he was special. He was the first man I felt I could trust with my feelings, much less let my son get attached to.

Wally and me at “THE party”

I had planned to leave that weekend to go to my parent’s home in North Carolina for the Holidays. Wally convinced me to stay in DC for the party, and he would fly me home the next day. I sent my son ahead with my sister and her husband. We left the party around midnight, and by 12:30 am, it was snowing like a blizzard! We called, and the airport had closed due to weather. I was stuck in DC.

I told Wally I had to get to North Carolina to be with my family. He said he would drive me. It continued to snow the entire trip, and what should have taken six hours, took fourteen! Talk about getting to know someone, spend fourteen hours in a car with them! He had not eaten or slept (just drank coffee), and he was going to turn around an hour after we got there and drive back to Washington. My mother convinced him to stay until the next morning.

Will You Marry Me

We were at my parent’s home in North Carolina again the following Christmas when he proposed. Always the romantic, he had hidden my ring in the box with a lovely sweater set. Fortunately, it was not snowing that year. We were married the following February. Never having had children, Wally had made a special effort to bond with my son, so it was a joyous occasion for all of us.

A Baby on the Way

We were delighted several years later when we found out we were expecting a baby. My son, who was now eight years old, ran up and down the street knocking on doors and telling the neighbors he was going to be a “big brother”! When I went into labor on January 28th, my husband was in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin on business. There was a snow storm there (of course). He called the airport right away and learned it was closed due to wind and ice. Again, being the resourceful person he was, he paid the pilot of the Playboy Club to fly him out to Chicago, O’Hare International Airport.

Since it was snowing in most of the northeast, he had to crisscross the country to get home. Each time he touched down in a different city, he would call the hospital, page my sister, and send a dozen red roses! By the time he got to Washington late that afternoon, my room looked like a florist shop! The nurses were all a twitter about how romantic he was. When he got there, they took him down to the nursery to see the baby. As my sister related it, one of the nurses said, “this MUST be your first child!”. Without hesitating, he said, “no, but it’s my first girl”. I knew at that moment, he considered both our children equally his, and, that never changed.


Baby Melissa	Always the “proud big brother”

I guess I would tell all the single women out there to be on the lookout for a “Summer” in their lives! No, I’m just kidding. There are plenty of men who are romantic who are not “Summers”. When my son (a “Winter”) met his wife for the first time, she invited him to dinner. Since it was near Valentine’s Day, he decided to take her flowers, so he stopped by

the florist. On the way there, he was talking to her on the phone. He casually asked her if there were any flowers she was allergic to. She said, “yes, lavender”. He didn’t know what lavender looked like, so anything purple in the arrangement, he threw out the window!

My son and his wife

I would not exactly call my son-in-law (another “Winter”) a romantic. I will say that nothing gives him more pleasure than surprising my daughter with something that will delight her. She is a “Spring”, of course, so you can always expect an emotional reaction. She will either squeal or cry, but you always know when she is touched by something you do for her. When

her children get an unexpected break from college, they will drive through the night just to surprise her.