Valentine's Day

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!!!