For Valentine’s Day, love stories from NW Georgia
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. It’s the perfect day, though not the only day, to say “I love you” in a meaningful way. We asked some local folks to share stories of love moments with us.
“When my husband and I went to enlist in the Army together, we weren’t married yet. The recruiter told us if we wanted to stay together we had to be married. My husband turned to me and said, ‘So, ya wanna?’ So I never got a formal proposal.
“Nine years later, at a family gathering where we were doing karaoke, my husband announced to everyone that he had never actually proposed to me and he got down on one knee and asked me to be his forever.”
—Alyssak.,fortoglethorpe
“On our sixth anniversary, my wife gave me a book that had pages of pre-printed questions she answered about our relationship, like what her first impressions of me were, what her hopes for her future with me were, what she thought was special about me. I love that book.”
—Zackk.,fortoglethorpe
“For my 60th birthday my husband planned a surprise birthday party for me. He invited all our friends and family. He had a nice buffet dinner, cake, even hired a couple of musicians for entertainment! We ate, danced and mingled. I was so happy that he made such an effort. My friends told me later how hard he worked to pull it together. I felt like I was experiencing a ‘this is your life’ moment — to have so many people I love all together.”
—Sarad.,ringgold
“My husband and I had just started dating. He had a boat and took me to Lake Lanier. We boated out to one of the many small islands in the lake and my husband built a fire to go with the picnic basket full of steaks, lobster tails and a bottle of wine he’d brought. He wined and dined me on the lake. It was very special and romantic and I’ll never forget it.”
—Valerieh.,ringgold
“One year, my husband couldn’t attend his beloved Cave-in — a week-long event in West Virginia for cavers from around the country and the world. I gathered big sheets of packing paper and other supplies and made three-foot long stalactites and hung them from the living room ceiling and I made bats and a fake campfire and put on some John Denver music for a simulated cave-in. I think he liked it quite a bit.”
—Maryb.,catoosacounty
“When our boys were little (now 26 and 20) and money was tight one year, my husband and I went together to the Hallmark store at the mall and picked out cards for each other, traded them, stood there and read them, and then put them back in the rack! It’s a great memory that keeps us humble today.”
—Amyj.,ringgold
“I had been playing the part of an elf at a nursing home at Christmastime, buying and handing out gifts to residents. One Valentine’s Day I decided to hand out paper Valentines like the ones school children give to each other. I went room-toroom and made sure all 130 residents got one. They loved them more than anything else I’d ever given them,” —Francisp.,catoosacounty
“After my husband passed away, I wrote love notes to him every day for a long time. No, he couldn’t see them, but creating expressions of my love soothed my very sad heart. Love doesn’t die just because the one you loved did.” — Doris L., Rossville
“When I was ten years old, a boy in my neighborhood who liked me adjusted the seat on his bike so I could ride it and also bought me three tiny cactuses. It still warms my heart to think of it.”
—Janineg.,lakeview
“Many years after my husband and I were married, he told me he spent months following me around in the grocery store I worked next to and stopped in every evening, wanting to meet me because he thought I would make a good wife. I never noticed him following, but it touched my heart that he still thought about it after 20 years and wanted me to know.”
—Reneo.,chickamauga
“When my hands got twisted up with arthritis, my wife buttoned my shirts and tied
my shoes for me without making a big deal of it. That was worth a million Valentine cards.”
—Alb.,formerlyofrossville
“My wife makes Thanksgiving to Christmas a monthlong holiday with music and baking and Christmas lights and peacefulness that I look forward to coming home to every day. She knows my childhood wasn’t like that and I know she wants me to experience it, even if I am an adult and should probably get less excited about it.”
—Wendelld.,chickamauga