Valentine’s Day can be hard. My husband, Jeff, and I understand.
We buried our sweet little girl, Jackie, thirty-nine years ago today. She lived only a day. And though the decades have been good to us, the memory of her lingers like a soft whisper. A quiet breath you hear but can’t make out, so you think, was there really a sound? A murmur? You’re sure there was, but the moment fades into the past, dissipating like dust in a breeze—a story told and gone forever. One you’ll never hear again. Never decipher.
Never understand.
Valentine’s Day is tough for many people, millions really, for hard reasons— a relationship broken, love extinguished, child lost, soulmate gone. Yet what mends our broken souls is the relationships that remain—the unsuspecting people who carry us through.
To every person who reads this. To those of you who have gone searching for the meaning of your life, or to those who have simply had a bad Valentine’s Day, look around and see the people you whispered to:
the woman you held the door for,
the person’s heartfelt post you liked,
the friend you spent time with,
the nod to that stranger,
the touch of your hand to a friend.
You won’t know until the day you die, what the whisper of your breath on their shoulder meant to them.
Thank you, my friends. These are my Valentine’s Day whisperers.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
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CJZahner is an author, wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. She is grateful for the people in her life who love her. She loves them right back.