Valentine's Day Revisited

My dad was the consummate romantic and while I so admired the many ways he chose to show his adoration of and love for our Mom, it never occurred to me that for a young impressionable child, this was not perhaps the thing to see on a daily basis, at least not without the caveat; "do not think that every couple is like us", but we would not have understood or necessarily bought into that so.... I never really knew that in my friends houses there would not be a 'mom' who was literally swept up off her feet by her returning from work husband as happened daily in ours for as long as Dad worked...many many years. I remember being amazed that the parents of friends were nearly never to be seen together in the same room let alone dancing cheek to cheek like mine, whenever any crooners voices came on the radio. My parents held hands everywhere they went and instead of getting how special they were to each other, we were sometimes embarrased because of course none of our friends parents did that...we believed that hand holding was for us teenagers not for our 'old parents' who at the time were so much younger then I am now as I write this. The truth about romantic Mom and Dad is that once glimpsed through the eyes of a child it becomes the norm of expectations even though for me, unfortunately, these expectations were not at all rooted in reality, except of course for those rarified couples like my parents. We grew up not giving credence to what most other homes had, despite having born witness to those lives through time spent away from our home visiting friends, instead we ended up fixating only on what we saw in ours, purely and simply the "L" word at the height of all its perfection. Valentine's Day in our house was cause for even more hearts and flowers than on any other 'normal' day and so it is only natural for me to want at least some of what Mom had in such abundance. I wanted the long stemmed roses in vivid red, I wanted the huge satin padded heart shaped box of mediocre chocolate (pre Belgian)to share with my kids and I wanted the poetry that only a man who truly loves his other half, is capable of composing. It's funny that I have no recollection of Mom's gifts to dad beyond those carefully selected and perfectly chosen cards that seemed to fit Dad to a tee.I do however recall the cards presented to the four of us every Feb.14th by our parents, always the perfect choice. Cards and words played a huge role on our Valentines Days and somehow it is this, that I have chosen to pass on to my own babies even as they grow too old and/or too cynical to want or care about them. I think what is left for me to pay forward is more in sync with the reality of life today, yet part of me will always wish it were otherwise and I could have passed onto them the full blown Valentine's Day that I knew and loved.
Thanks Mom and Dad.