Friendship, Love and Pink Roses

For the first time, I’m joining in with Chari over at Happy to Design for Sunday Favorites. I’d like to share with you once again a story very close to my heart.

My original post was published a year ago on 28 January 2010. In the year that has passed since I originally wrote this post, my husband hasn't had any major health problems and no more heart attacks...for which I am so thankful. We've gone through some hard times, but also some breath-stealingly wonderful times. He'll always be my sweetheart.

Pink roses…the sight of them will forever be associated in my mind with my husband. Since I came very close to losing him last Thursday due to a heart attack, I wanted to do this table setting to celebrate a love and friendship that has spanned 35 years…and it all began with pink roses.

We grew up together, living about 3 miles apart, in a little rural area. When we were children, we couldn’t stand the sight of each other. I thought he was horrible because he always seemed to be making fun of me and was so mean to me. He thought I was a loud whiny brat.

All of that changed when I was about 14 years old and he was 16. On Valentine’s Day that year, a lady that lived down the road from my home brought me a vase of the most beautiful pink roses. She wouldn’t tell me who had sent them to me and she would only smile when I asked her. The only thing written on the card was a “?”. After a day or so of driving myself crazy wondering who in the world would send me flowers, my mother finally told me they were from him. Talk about being shocked!

Of course, being only 14 years old, I was too young to date. However, my mother did allow him to drive me straight home after church every Sunday…wow, a whole quarter of a mile from the church to where I lived. I was finally allowed to actually go out on a date with him when I turned 16.

We stupidly let differences separate us for about 7 years while we were in our 20’s, but we eventually made our way back to each other. We’ve been together ever since, raising 4 children and so far, welcoming 3 grandchildren into the world.

I hope I have many more years with him by my side. I hope when we’re very old and gray, we’ll be sitting out on the porch rocking in our chairs, reminiscing and watching our grandchildren play. Until then, we’ll just sit at the dining table…enjoying our time together and the beauty of pink roses.

The chargers were hand painted for me by a very talented artist. Since I wanted to be able to use the chargers in Christmas table settings, she surrounded the pink roses by snowy pine branches and berries. I topped the chargers with clear glass dinner plates and salad plates. I added vintage pink stemmed glasses for serving shrimp cocktails. Small pitchers were placed at each setting to hold individual servings of salad dressing.