Love is

Valentinus (St. Valentine) was condemned to be beaten with clubs, then beheaded, February 14, 269 A.D. His crime? He was conducting weddings and marriages in secret in defiance of the emperor's decree. He was declared a saint in 496. Feb. 14 was chosen for his execution because it was a festival day for a Roman goddess. According to tradition, Valentine sent love letters to his parishioners from prison.

A special valentine for you

I don't think I could say it any better than Emerald Eyes has--a list of favorite love songs, mature thoughts about love, and memories of grandparents. Go for it.

And then from me, a scan of one of my mother's valentines, from Billy Smith, a school mate at Pine View School, I assume. This is probably from the early 1920s and was embossed paper with cut edges, "Whitney Made Worcester, Mass." The inside message with a line drawing of a little boy swinging on a fence reads:

I love you little
Valentine,
But I am very shy,
And if you think
you could be kind,
Please smile as you
pass by.

Pineview School, Lee County, Illinois, Mother is 2nd from the left, front row
The little girl third from the right in the back row is Arlene Beachley David, one of my mother's closest friends. I just looked her up and saw on the Manchester College website that she died January 2, 2006. She married later in life and never had children (I attended her wedding), but I talked to her on the phone maybe in 2003, and she was living with her deceased husband's niece.

Valentine greeting from Haiti

My husband called tonight to wish me Happy Valentine's Day. He's in Haiti on a mission trip and it's 90 degrees! It's very cold and snowy here, so he picked a great week to be gone. My daughter trudged through the snow today about noon to deliver his card (and one from the cat). He says he's got lots of photos and a thousand stories to tell. Here is the story of the director of the school in Ouanaminthe where the team is working this week. He told me to imagine the worst possible poverty, and it was way beyond that. They have beans and rice and rice and beans for lunch, but supper has a little more variety.

Happy Valentine's Day

This is a valentine my mother received when she was in Pine View school in Lee County, Illinois, from a schoolmate named Belva. From what mother said, they did not make a big deal about Christmas, but obviously from her collection of valentines (which included some belonging to her older brother) that she saved over 80 years, this was a time of great fun for the children. The inside message:
Here's a little valentine
For you, little friend of
mine,
You were first to win my
heart,
And will always hold the
larger part

The card is made of embossed paper with a cut-out edge by Whitney Made of Worcester, Mass.

I commented on the value of paper collectibles here, and show two others from her collection.

I selected this one today because of the snow scene, and because it is contemporary realism for the era. Most of her valentines depict 19th and 18th century scenes with a lot of lace, or are sort of cartoonish.

Enjoy the day!