I thought you’d all like to know how the Valentine’s Day caper turned out.  I received a phone call from the 94 year old Aunt V. on Saturday evening.  Her voice was much stronger, louder and even higher pitched than normal.  She was excited.  Why?  She said she had received  twelve Valentine’s Day cards!  She couldn’t remember a Valentine’s Day so wonderful since she was a little girl.  She hadn’t sent any out so she didn’t understand why she was getting so many, but “this is a Valentine’s Day I’m never going to forget!”  She started rattling off who had sent her what cards, describing them, and the photos of families and children that were included in several.  I couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but that’s the way it was supposed to be.

Monday was Presidents’ Day, so no mail.  I stopped over to visit her on Tuesday and she was all aglow.  She had a total of SIXTEEN Valentines by then and she was still excited.  She has them in a stack on the table next to the chair she sits in most of the day.  She gave them to me to see, one by one, while she told me who it was from and how long it had been since she’d seen some of the people.  She pointed out the faces of little children in the photos and told me who was who (even though I knew) and read me bits of the notes people had written inside.

Then she tucked them all back into their pile and placed them gently back on the table.  “I like to take them out and just look at them.” she said.

It was a small thing for each of us to do.  The result?  Priceless.