I couldn't not share this . . .

I've been going through old papers that my grandparents saved, and I came across this letter that my grandpa, Clark Brown, wrote to my grandma, Ellen Walker Brown. It's dated February 12, 1972. My dad said this was shortly after she was diagnosed with cancer. She died in April 1973.


Dear Ellen,
It has been a long time since I wrote you a letter. May I take the occasion of this Valentine Day to express my thoughts to you?
Perhaps you will recall that it was on another Valentine Day twenty-six years ago when you were living in Provo that I sent you those first red roses.
Much has transpired during the intervening years. There were those few carefree, happy days when we were first together in Long Beach. There was that December night when I watched the stars dancing in your eyes after you accepted the ring from me. There was the joyful day when you and I knelt across the altar in the Salt Lake Temple and pledged ourselves to each other for time and all eternity. And, of all the brides there, you were the loveliest, the most wonderful.
Then followed those years of struggle when we labored together to establish our home. I had little money and it pained me that I could not give you the nice things I would have liked you to have. But, through it all, we loved each other; and I could not have been happier, for all my world revolved about you.
And then came the children to make our little world complete. How proud I've been of them and how grateful that you are their mother!
As I have watched couples whom we know, and seen many of their marriages falter, I have come to realize, Ellen, what a rare and wonderful thing your love has been.
You have always been kind, gentle, helpful, understanding, patient, forgiving, faithful and true. Your love has been new and fresh each day. You have kissed away the dark hours and calmed my troubled mind.
You have sustained me in all I have undertaken and have ever sought to push me onward and upward to good things. You have made me a better man. You have strengthened my determination to so live that we may be together always.
You have ever been willing to sacrifice your own desires for others, to go out of your way to make others happy.
Your love has been like the gold of the sunlight, the matchless colors of the flowers, the melody of a lovely song, the deep, silent beauty of a precious gem-a steadfast, noble love.
You have been everything for which I have yearned. You belong to my heart, now and forever.
And so, my beloved, on this Valentine Day, I salute you and pray that for you "the morning breaks and the shadows flee away."

Yours always,
Clark


I still can't read this letter without getting teary-eyed. Once again, I am reminded how wonderful it is that we can be together for eternity, and not just for this lifetime. None of us grandkids ever got to meet our Grandma. Shane, the oldest grandchild in the family, was born I think just a few months after she died. I still get teary-eyed every time I think about meeting her some day. I'm pretty sure there won't ever be a time when this doesn't happen. Maybe it seems weird to some people that I love and feel so close to someone whom I've never met, but I really do feel my ancestors around me all the time. I know they're on the other side cheering me on, and I'm sure I did the same for them when they were here.

Phew! Sorry about the two emotional posts-it's just been one of those days!

P.S. I can't figure out how to properly indent/separate the paragraphs on this post. I've tried putting lines in between the paragraphs indenting, and using spaces, but nothing stays once I publish the post. Grrr.