The Romantic.com

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THE LOVE IS REAL EVEN IF THE ROSES AREN’T

submitted by: Brenda temple

My husband came from a family that was not overly “expressive” in their love for each other.  He came into our marriage with little to no creativity in the romance dept.

After 3 years and 2 children he was on a 6 month  deployment, (USN), during our anniversary.  You have to realize that this happened years before email and the internet came into being and letters were sometimes “lost” or received months after being sent.

He had made arrangements with one of our neighbors to bring me over his card and gift he bought before he left, but he didn’t leave it at that.  Imagine my surprise when I answered the door and his buddy from the ship was standing there.  He told me he was getting out of the Navy and that before he left to return home my husband had asked him to deliver something to me on our anniversary.

He handed me a photograph of my husband standing on a little Italian street with a dozen red roses in his hands reaching out to “hand” them to me, and then offered a letter of explanation.  Since he couldn’t be home with me to celebrate our day and buy me roses in person he wanted to give them to me the only way he could.  He had thought about sending them with his friend but realized they’d never make it, and he thought about giving his friend the money and having him buy them when he got back to the states, but he didn’t feel like that would be the same.

Therefore, he bought the roses there and had his friend bring me the picture.  I was overwhelmed and a little befuddled that he had thought of this all on his own, but to this day that remains one of the sweetest and best anniversary gifts he ever gave me.

What happened to the real roses you might ask. Well, as he was walking down the street he saw an elderly couple sitting on the bench holding hands and the glow of love was all around them.  He gave them the roses, took his picture with them, and then wrote a little note about how he saw us in this couple in another 50 years.