Our First Valentine’s Day together
By Mary Ann Breshears
Rich and I were sophomores in college at the University of
Idaho and very typical college students, meaning we had no money, but we were
in love. We had been dating for almost a
year and were certain we were going to get married as there was talk of it but
no official date on the calendar.
When the day arrived I personally was so excited that I had
the most incredible Valentine in the world and he was all mine! We made plans to meet at 5 so we could
exchange Valentines, go to dinner and then spend the evening talking about how
wonderful our life together was going to be!
Rich arrived at my dorm room promptly at 5 with gifts in hand. He brought me a bottle of inexpensive
Champaign and a box of equally inexpensive chocolates, plus a card. I had gotten him a very small box of not
quite as inexpensive chocolates, a heart shaped balloon and a large sappy
card. We exchanged our gifts, thinking
we had almost outdone ourselves given we were living on a student’s budget of
$0 for gifts. Then the highlight of the
evening arrived, dinner, we walked to Skippers and had all you can eat Fish and
Chips. (It was Friday in the Lenten
season)
We sat in a booth in the back of the restaurant with the
lots of other college students around us, but we didn’t care. We talked and talked about our future. How someday, we would be married living out
the perfect married life: house, children, pets and jobs. Together we were ready to take the world on! After our long fluorescent light dinner, we
decided to walk the long way home, circling around the campus when we realized
it was getting late, about 8 pm. But
Rich needed to be up and at work by 2 AM so our first Valentine ended with a
kiss at my dorm room door. All I thought
was ---Wow what a wonderful evening with my incredible Valentine.
Twenty-seven years later I spend almost every moment with my
Valentine and in my opinion he is still incredible. This year we don’t have all of the things we
talked about at that amazing first Valentine’s day dinner but we do have so
much more and I would not change a moment of the journey to get to today’s
dinner. I don’t know what we will have to
eat tonight for dinner, probably not fish and chips, but what we will have is
still a lively conversation about our family, maybe our pets, what needs
repaired in the house and of course our day of photography studio work. We love what we do because we do what we
love! How many can say that, I ask
you? What a wonderful day to stop and
reflect.
Thank you Rich Breshears for being the best Valentine a girl
could have 27 years in a row!!!
