Lucille Yuen

Remember when you were in grade school and the kids in class brought valentines to share with one another? It was always a wonderful, festive time that allowed kids to remember one another and take home a lot of brightly colored mementos of a fun time.

Well, yesterday on Valentine’s Day, my kids sent me Valentines in the form of floral bouquets to tell me they love me and want me to get well. Imagine my surprise and the sweetness I felt settle upon my heart when I opened the cards and realized their thoughtfulness!

One cannot appreciate how much flowers mean when one is recuperating until you are fighting for wellness yourself. The little kindness of one of my visitors from church of just a little votive candle and her taking time to visit assured me she cared for me and was very uplifting. Every card tells you someone cares and helps your morale.

It’s like a cheer team encouraging you along to get strong and become well again, and I am so grateful for them all.

My family has concerns and demanding schedules of their own, yet they took time to demonstrate their love. I am blessed to have these kids as my own.

Two of my sisters in California sent emails to say they were glad I was doing better, too. I hadn’t heard from one in quite some time. That was very nice and encouraging, as well!

Receiving mercy often teaches one how to give mercy, and I am glad to have learned how better to show it. Mercy is not strained, it flows easily from gratitude for mercy experienced.

Today is Valentine’s Day and I have the perfect valentine in my husband, the man whose heart has loved and kept me for 43 years. Today when I went downstairs to breakfast, I found a gift bag with an envelope purse in it and the best card a woman could ever want. I had been looking for an envelope purse because they lay flat and are fairly inconspicuous. My dear friend, Carolyn, says it well when she says she keeps her personal possessions on her body when she goes out, because as she has aged, she finds it easy to forget her purse, sunglasses, etc. if she lays them down. Slinging an envelope purse across your body assures that your purse and your belongings stay with you.

It wasn’t necessary, but it was so like my San to do something that he knew would mean so much to me. This week has been a messy one, with me going in to have a cystoscopy done on my left bladder that turned difficult. No one could have anticipated that it would mean that the doctor would find a growth in the ureter on the right side and that by excising and cauterizing it, that the ureter’s membrane would have thinned too much and that urine would leak around my kidney, causing pain and vomiting.

No one could have anticipated the wait in the emergency rooms of two hospitals that ended up with me being admitted to the hospital and another surgery to place a stent in my right urinary tract. No one could have anticipated the pain, discomfort, difficulty and disruption of our lives.

And then there was my San, with me all the way and running back and forth to the hospital and tiring himself in his compromised condition for my sake. My faithful husband, he was.

Thank God our church believes in caring for its members. The sisters of mercy of Christian Fellowship really came through for us. San does not cook, and both of us were going to need nourishing food that was palatable, inviting eating. And then there were the cards, flowers, phone calls, and hospital visits. Do I believe my church’s people really care for me? I know they do now. Yes, they do it because we believe in something—that we want to be like Jesus, but they cared about ME, too. That brings tears to my heart and eyes.

So, I love my Savior, my valentine—my dearest San, and the people who showed such kindness for their Lord’s namesake.

Happy Valentines Day, all, for today commemorates love that unselfishly gives of itself, which is true love. It’s not really the day that celebrates the flesh, but the day that reminds us of a Christian saint who showed Christ’s love so long ago when it was rare to care for people other than for personal reasons. It certainly is the day to commemorate true love of two people who will give all for the other.