A Different Kind of Valentine's Day--Celebration of Love and Life
By GalTime Teen Expert Jennifer A. Powell-Lunder, Psy.D.
Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. As a kid I remember well the excitement of receiving all those Valentine cards from my fellow friends and classmates. It was so much fun to sort through each card, picking out the ones I liked the best, and reading the one's from my best friends.
February 11, 2009 I was scheduled for a bilateral mastectomy, the final step in my fight with breast cancer. I had already been through the chemotherapy and I was grateful that it would all be over soon. My children were five and eight at the time.
In preparation I pre-wrote their school Valentines and left them with my husband. I was determined to not to let my surgery affect their ability to participate in a holiday about which I had fond memories of my own. They had been through enough already.
The surgery went well except for the day following I could barely speak let alone lift my head up. I ended up needing a blood transfusion on February 12. Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday, which meant that the school celebration was on Friday February 13.
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Hours after the transfusion, I finally began to feel alive again. At around 9pm about an hour after I had sent my husband and parents home, I suddenly remembered I had to remind my husband about the Valentines' cards . I knew my amazing man had been through so much over the last few days waiting and watching, that the last thing on his mind were school Valentine's .
I frantically called my husband's cell phone, no answer, I tried our home phone, no answer, they were still on their way back to the house. I called my parent's cell phone and thankfully my mother answered. My voice sounded so anxious and urgent, her initial response was concern and worry. "Tell Bill to remember the Valentine's I ranted, the school Valentine's." It took a moment for my shocked mother to understand what I was talking about. You see only an hour before when she left the hospital I was still so tired and unable to really communicate.
When I was released from the hospital several days later, my ultimate joy came when I finally saw my kids. Together we went through all the school Valentine's they had received. We picked out our favorites. My 8 year old detailed who had given the best cards and candy. I smiled, relieved that my children's innocence and a little forethought on my part had allowed them to experience the simple joy of Valentine's Day at school. My own heart was bursting with joy, a reminder that so often it is the little things that matter most in life.
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