Aren't they beautiful!
When Granddaddy came home for lunch yesterday, he sneaked down the stairs with these beautiful roses behind his back. Of course, Mimi was busy at her sewing machine and barely looked up when he walked through the door ~ then all of a sudden a sea of red was between my face and my machine. What a sweet surprise from my Sweetheart of Forty Years!
As I placed the bouquet in water and tied some tulle around the vase, I thought about our first Valentines Day together and knew the roses really shouldn't have been a surprise this year . . . you see, girls, granddaddy has been doing the same thing for almost all of these 40 years.
Let Mimi tell you the story of our first Valentines Day and how the roses all began ~~
Four of Mimi's very best friends had all gotten married around the same time as she and granddaddy. Every weekend we 4 couples got together for something--dinner, rook games, movies or just watching tv (yes, there was tv way back then!) This first Valentines Day as a married couple was on Sunday so we were having a get-together on Saturday night. The guys had been busy together that day while the girls shopped for gifts for our guys thinking that was why they wanted to have this little party on Saturday night. Well, after dinner the girls surprised the boys with their "matching" Valentines Day gifts. The girls then got the bigger surprise--no gifts from the guys!! Mimi's not really sure what was said behind closed doors later that night; but in front of the boys, we tried to not make a big deal while we secretly vowed NEVER to buy them gifts again!
As we all left the R's little apartment later that night, we found it was snowing ~ the first snow of winter!! Sunday morning Mimi couldn't wait to see how much snow we had (remember Mimi was teaching then and lots of snow meant no school!). As I rushed to the front door of the little upstairs apartment over Pappaw's funeral home where Granddaddy and I lived, I was still feeling a little sad about the guys forgetting it was Valentines Day the night before. But when I opened the door, guess what I found sitting in the snow on the steps? The most beautiful bouquet of red and pink roses -- now how did those get there? After the night before, I thought they were from Mama and Daddy; but I was wrong ~~ they were from your sweet granddaddy!
Now to this day, I still don't know how much that bouquet really cost to get them delivered on Sunday morning in the snow or whether or not they had been ordered before Saturday night or really who even put them there or when!! But I do know that sweet gesture (so out of character for your financial-minded granddaddy) was something I will always treasure!
You know that since Mimi sometimes can't remember her name and even calls ya'll by one of the other's names, that I don't remember all 40 Valentines Day gifts ~ but I'm pretty sure that most, if not all, of them have been roses of some color. Why roses? Mimi can only guess that it's because of that very first Valentines Day so long ago.
Thank you, Granddaddy for another beautiful bouquet!
ps ~ Mimi was the only one of the 4 girls to get a surprise from their hubby that first Valentines Day ~ yeah for Granddaddy!
You sang just beautifully, Ailee Claire!!
