My Last Gift

On Valentine’s Day 1980, one of the co-workers raved about the giant valentine cookies that were on sale at Albertsons on 200 South (Salt Lake City). I went along to buy my Dad a cookie. A heart failure the weekend before had put him in the hospital. (His first and only stay at the hospital) Now he was home and I was going home the coming weekend to see him. The cookie was covered in pink frosting and had other decorations. That is all I remember of it. I don’t even remember if my Dad ate it or if it got thrown out after I got back to Utah.

I remember dropping off my brother in Provo on Sunday, the 17^th after a two day weekend in Idaho. When I got back to my apartment in Salt Lake City, I called home to let my mom know that John and I made it safely home. I wasn't prepared for the news that I got. Sometime while I was on the road (probably passing Salt Lake as John and I headed toward Provo), my Dad had a heart attack and he died on the way to the hospital in Burley.

(For some reason, I don’t associate Valentine’s Day with the death of my dad, but I do associate President’s Holiday because he died that weekend.)

I think of the last gift I gave my dad and I realize he still gives me gifts, not material of course, but the gifts are of his love. And they aren't on Valentine’s Day, but when I need them the most. I felt his love and support when I had an EKG in February 2004. (The doctor was concerned about a possible heart murmur.) Once when I was sick, I felt his support as I walked to my bed when I started to black out. Recently I felt his comfort one September morning after a tough night. In his own way, he let me know my mom had survived another difficult night.My dad is gone from my earthly life, but he stills loves me.  Yeah, love is eternal. Happy Valentine’s Day, Dad.

Cupid's Heart Attacks

A few years ago, Jay and I were watching TV in the evening. Jay heard someone outside the door. He opened the door, but no one was there. But I did see some familiar looking valentines on the door. Cupid aka Crystal, Whitney and/or Brittany had decorated Crystal’s grandma’s bedroom wall with homemade valentines. Grandma had no clue who did, even though she saw them wander in and out of her room as the posted the heart attacks (valentines) on the wall. I knew it was the three amigos because I recognized Mom’s car. Crystal and her friends weren’t old enough to drive then, so Mom was recruited in the heart attacks on my door. And I was at the house while they gave Grandma heart attacks.

When I asked Crystal, she flat out denied it; claiming she had no clue who did or what heart attacks (or cupids as I called the heart attacks then). I guess she forgot that I had witnessed her cupid her Grandma’s bedroom wall.

A few months later, those heart attacks saved my life. I was down on myself because of problems at work. I felt as if I didn’t have the ability to get along with co-workers and I was having a tough time thinking well of myself. I happen to notice one of the heart on my bedroom door and then another. One of the Cupids had wrote “U always think of others”, “the most amazing kind person”, “U brighten lives around you” and others. Looking at those heart attacks made me realize that I mattered to someone. A young woman still in her teens, who thought a lot of me. Crystal helped me pick up myself from ground and lifted me up in my time of need. Crystal and the Cupid team saved my life.

It is true that you never know what a kind word will do or when it is needed. Marjorie Pay Hinckley once quoted “There is no such thing as a small act of kindness.”

Thank you, Crystal, Whitney, Brittany and Jewel.