This is Valentine's Day weekend. What better time to write your own love story to add to your Family Stories? Have you told your children and/or grandchildren the story of how you met the love of your life? Maybe it is the father or grandfather they know, or perhaps it was someone else. However and whoever, it's a part of your life and deserves space with other family stories.
On Valentine's Day, romance is in the air so a perfect time to trigger some Valentine or Love memories of your own. No two love stories are alike. Some may be similar such as 'we were high school sweethearts,' but even each of those situations was a little different.
In my family, the story of my parents' marriage was told often, so often that I could almost see it as if in a movie. I've had their story published in the LifeStories Journal. They were young, 20 and 21, and had been dating for a while. They wanted to get married, but there was a problem. My mother's family did not like my father. They decided to elope and were married by a justice of the peace. Mother wore a red linen dress but no flowers, no bridesmaids. the JP's wife was the witness. The ceremony was interrupted by a phone call. Time out for the judge to plan a fishing trip. They went out to eat afterward. It was still Depression years, and Dad had only enough money for one plate of spaghetti. At 9 p.m. he took his new bride back to her mother's apartment. They kept the secret for 6 weeks. It was then my grandmother confronted my mother, and she was soon packing her bags and moving in with her husband. That marriage lasted 57 years.
My husband and I were neighbors during the first year I taught 4th grade in a Chicago suburb. Four single women lived in two upstairs apartments, and a young married couple lived in one downstairs apartment, with four bachelors in the one next to them. The bachelors invited the single women to join them for dinner soon after we all moved in. We spent the evening getting to know one another, and as we left one of the men followed me to the door and asked me for a date. I went out with him the next evening but told my roommate, "He's nice, but it's not a good idea to date your neighbor." I didn't listen to what I had said, as we continued to date, even after he moved to a nearby state for a new job. Our 57th anniversary is coming up in June. Of the eight singles in the group at the apartment house, we were the only ones who ended up getting married.
My children both have interesting stories of how they found the one they fell in love with and married. You probably do, too. Write about the one you loved or the many you loved. We are all individuals and all have unique love stories.
Our oldest granddaughter became engaged at Christmastime this past year. Her love story is still being written with wedding plans in the works.
Those stories deserve a place with your other family stories. How you met, fell in love, and married can be the highlight of your Family Stories collection.
Talk to your spouse or fiance or significant other about the love stories in their families. Whether your Valentine's Day is full of flowers and candy or a movie at home with pizza, enjoy the day and one another.
Valentine's Day isn't only about romantic love. The love between family members can be celebrated on February 14th, as well. The first story I ever had published in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book was about a Valentine's Day when I realized my father loved me. I was seven, and he made a Valentine Box for me to take to school. The story, "Love in a Box," had been published many times since.
There is also love between good friends. Add our love for our pets. So many kinds of love that can be celebrated with joy this weekend.
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