Happy Valentine's Day!

A Valentine (1860)

I found an old, old, valentine

of my mother’s yesterday;

An age-stained, lacy, lovely thing

That she had put away

Between the covers of a book,

And as I touched it there,

I saw her young and beautiful

The sunlight on her hair,

The love-light in her dark, young eyes

That years could not destroy,

And through the paper lace there walked

My father as a boy.

Somewhere along the heavenly lanes

Today, their eyes ashine,

I think he asks her once again

To be his Valentine.

Grace Noll Crowel

It is my tradition to post this poem.  It always made my mother cry to have me read it.  It really describes what we both think is the love her parents had for one another.  Happy Valentine's Day!

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These are some Valentine's which were collected by my Great-Aunt Avis Cole.  My Grandfather's sister.  She taught for more than 40 years in Roosevelt Elementary School, Ames, Iowa.