Valentines

The latest Facebook status meme is encouraging people, "[t]o celebrate Valentines Day, change your Profile Picture to you and your spouse/significant other and make sure to tell how long you've been together!" I started to do this in my status but decided I had too many significant people in my life that I wanted to remember on Valentine's Day that they just wouldn't all fit in my status. Blog to the rescue!!

JM and I have been friends for 9+ years (Oct 2000), started dating 4.5 year ago (Aug 18, 2005), and just passed our 3-year wedding anniversary (Dec 30, 2006). Additionally, Jer has grown into my life over the last seven years and TGM arrived full force 6 months ago.

And then there are the very significant other couples in our lives--our parents. My parents have been married for 36(?) years while JM's parents have passed their 31st year of marriage. And while I'm thinking of parents, Happy Birthday, Mother!! (on the 15th).

And we are also happy for the newly married--especially my siblings who are celebrating their first Valentine's Day as married couples--SR & Andrew and D & Greg!

Valentine's Day is also a day that I remember another friend--Tom. Somewhere between 1st grade and 3rd grade, he and I became friends. In junior high, while the other girls may have gotten flowers or balloon bouquets from their boyfriend-of-the-week, Tom would have something small for me for valentine's day. And when the flowers had wilted and the balloons drooped and the other girls and changed boyfriends, Tom was still my friend. We talked about everything and nothing during recesses, sometimes literally nothing. When his family moved 45 minutes away, then through high school we would see each other at music competitions or maybe games when our schools competed. The only high school formal I attended was his senior prom. Our relationship was never defined as boyfriend-girlfriend. Before other kids our age even thought about having boyfriends or girlfriends, we were already warding off the questions of older kids on the buses with the response, "He/She is a a boy/girl and he/she is my friend, but he/she is not my boy/girl-friend." Our lives have taken different paths. I went off to college, finished my degree, and moved across the country. As the youngest in his family (that has more kids than my family), he commuted to college and took jobs (paper routes, local retail work) that allowed him to help care for his parents in their retirement. After his father passed away, he was the primary caregiver for his mother who fought Parkinsons for as long as I knew her, until she passed away a few years ago. And so Tom has been a friend for many years, but I especially think of him at this time of year because Valentines Day is his birthday. Happy Birthday, Tom!!