With all of the Valentine's Day festivities in the air, I thought I'd share one of my most memorable Valentine's Day stories as an Army wife. Was I with my husband? Of course not, he was deployed. I was living in Savannah; my friend whom I met teaching also had a deployed husband. She and I tutored small groups of children after school at this center in Savannah's Southside. The Southside of Savannah consists of Hunter Army Airfield, housing complexes and quite a few strip malls.
When we finished tutoring, right around dinner time, my friend Nicole and I figured we should go out to dinner for Valentine's Day. Since I lived downtown and she lived off of Highway 17, we would have to settle for a restaurant nearby the center, which did not leave us with too many Zagat rated choices. Where, oh where, would we end up?
Just standing there in front of our cars trying decide where to go, we gazed out toward the lit up signs for Taco Bell and Wendy's. It was really a no-brainer, we were in the fast food capital of Savannah. We would have our Valentine's Day dinner at none other than: the Olive Garden. Being pregnant at the time, the breadsticks were calling my name.
Needless to say, Nicole and I were among hundreds of V-Day celebrators at the Olive Garden. The parking lot was jam-packed. We put our name down, held our "your table is ready" light up thingamajig, and talked about how we met our respective husbands, all while doing some beyond spectacular people watching! Much to my surprise, the wait flew by and we were seated and I was enjoying my breadsticks before I knew it. I can't speak for my friend, but reminiscing about how my husband and I met made me forget, even just temporarily, that he was away.
I've lost track of the holidays I've actually spent with my husband, he's been deployed for so much of our marriage. But, my Valentine's Day at the Olive Garden is etched into my memory bank forever. Arguably my favorite part of the evening was when we were asked if we'd like to buy each other roses from the person selling them around the restaurant.
To good friends and good breadsticks...Happy Valentine's Day!
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Georgie....you beat me to it....This is the story I wanted to share. I actually remember valentine's Day as one of the least depressing holidays that year because I knew he would be home about 6 weeks later and I had a great friend who was going through the same thing as me to share it with. I forgot about them asking if we wanted to buy roses for each other. I do vividly remember people watching and thinking to myself how it was really not supposed to be this way...although I was so glad to have you there with me, Valentine's Day is not really about friends, but we made the best of it. It is so important to have good friends when your husband cannot always be there, especially those tough days like Valentine's Day.
ReplyDeleteWhat a blessing the next Valentine's day ended up being. Now we are in Korea for almost 15 months and last year on Valentines's Day we found out that we were having a little baby girl. This year we spent Valentine's day, again in Korea but there were three of us this time.What a difference a year makes! When I think back to Valentine's Day two years ago, I get a warm feeling knowing that when my husband couldn't be there, a very good friend was.