Valentines Day Revisited

Today I received an unexpected email from someone who had read my blog. It was from the mom of the boy I mentioned who bought me a pink carnation, just because he knew I wanted one, the boy who never had the chance to get someone a pink carnation for real, at least not as an adult. It was from Eric Probolsky's mom (and dad). "I was flooded with emotions when I read your article," she wrote to me, "To think almost 25 years after Eric died that another of his friends was still as much emotionally & spiritually aware of him is mind blowing."

I feel good about this. As a mom of two boys, myself, it is nearly impossible for me to get my arms around what it must be like to outlive a child who is still a child. I can't even go there. But if I brought her a moment of happiness or relief, in knowing that the circuits out there still light up with thoughts of her son, then I feel alright.

On a lighter note, it seems that my older son, Brian, is quite savvy when it comes to things social. Far more savvy than I could ever have imagined. When we were talking about who gave out valentines in his class, he said, "I think that some people give out valentines just because they really wanted to give out a valentine to one particular person." It was a statement that was so sophisticated and layered that at first I couldn't believe that he meant it in the way that I would have meant it, had I said it. But when I replied that "when I was a kid, that is exactly how it worked for me...I gave out valentines to everyone in the class, but it was really about me giving valentines to the boys I had crushes on," he nodded and said, "that's what I'm saying."

I then asked him if he had a crush on anyone.

He then asked me if he had given out any valentines. Like, duh.

But what he doesn't realize is that if he ever DOES decide to give valentines out to the class, well, I will KNOW that something is up.

And now, I must get my beauty sleep. You never know who you might run into at the airport.

YC