Hearts and Flowers

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all! (I've been watching a little too much Paula Deen.) I'm currently celebrating in silence. Both children, for the first time in 3 1/2 weeks, are napping at the same time. I'm in heaven... if only I was napping too.

Joe and I "went out" this weekend for Valentine's Day. His parents were kind enough to take both boys while we went to Olive Garden. Is that lame or what? I happen to love Olive Garden, but am sort of embarrassed by it, because we live in a city with amazing Italian food. In fact, I lived in Little Italy for the first three years I was here. Yet, Olive Garden. I have no explanations.

Our outing was really rained on when we heard of Joe's best friend's aunt having passed away. That probably sounds like too many degrees of separation to really matter, but Joe and O have been friends for 20 years and O's family is like his own. I'd know this beautiful woman for ten years and am just heartbroken. She was seriously one of the kindest people I've ever met. Hospitality was certainly her gift, and I don't know what her love language was, but she showed love to everyone she'd ever met. About a year and a half ago, she had an aneurysm and she'd made a full recovery. She had another one last week, and went in for surgery. She wasn't so lucky this time. Her family sent out the most beautiful and heartbreaking email I've ever read.

"Our beloved [Sue] was lifted on the wings of angels to Heaven today. Surrounded by her family that loved her and the thoughts and prayers of so many other family and friends; in the end God's plan for Sue called for her physical presence to leave us but her spirit is embedded in our hearts forever and in the hearts of all the people whose lives she touched."

I'm crying reading it for the tenth time.

Joe hasn't been quite the same since we found out. I think part of it is that he's still very afraid for his mom in her cancer battle. Another thing, I think, is the worry that someday, something may happen to one of us. What does that loss do to the one left behind? And now, we have these two precious little boys who depend on us so completely. But me? I can't worry about that. I can only love the three of them today like it's my last. That's how I roll.

Hug your loved ones a little tighter today. And really, celebrate that love, because it is the greatest of these.