The Best Gift I Ever Received

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Tonight I've been feeling supremely fortunate to be married to my wonderful husband. He is truly loving to me in such surprising, simple, and genuine ways. He still takes my breath away. I've been thinking about the best gift I have ever received from anyone, ever.  
(minus the handmade gifts from my children.)

It was almost twenty-five years ago and I was about to go away for the weekend with the man who would eventually become my husband. We left on a Friday night; we were planning on driving about three hours away to go to some jazz clubs, to listen to some great live music, and to drink some wine.

By the time we arrived at our hotel poor Jerry was exhausted, but we went out for a few hours anyway. The next morning he chose to stay in bed to rest and I went out to the nearby shops. This part of town was so neat with its unique little jewelry and art shops; I was thoroughly entertained. In fact, I went into a little place about a block down from our hotel and found some cute earrings and such. I also saw this really gorgeous artisan scarf, handpainted and one-of-a-kind. I didn't buy it because it was pretty costly, but I never forgot that scarf. I bought myself a sweet little beaded bag. On the way home I told Jer all about that shopping trip and he was delighted to have missed it.  lol

The weekend was wonderful; we still talk about what a turning point it was for us. But the true moment when I knew for sure about this man came about three months later, on my birthday.

I walked in and he had a pile of packages for me to open. I was amazed because I knew how much he despised shopping. When I got to the last box I was truly thrilled to see a very nice St. Louis Blues sweatshirt; we were very fond of going to see the Blues play. I pulled that sweatshirt out of the box with a shout of delight only to discover, hidden beneath it, the scarf I had seen on our weekend away.

Maybe you saw that coming, but I certainly hadn't!
Jerry had contacted the hotel, called a few shops, and had found the woman who was showing the scarf to me. The shop assistant had remembered me and had sent the scarf to Jerry. I was stunned. I felt very loved.

LOL
Maybe not.

I told him that he never ever ever had to buy me a gift again as long as we lived and I remind him of that every single birthday and traditionally gifty holiday. Occasionally he still surprises me like that and it always touches my heart.