Something Really Sweet From Valentine’s Day

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Something cool happened and I wanted to share the story with you.

It wasn't anything especially romantic about my Valentine's Day, but I'm glad we could make it special for another Tri-state couple.

We moved into our current house about four years ago. A few months ago me and my wife, Lisa, were cleaning off a few shelves in the garage. On one shelf we found a small, red book titled "My Five Year Diary."

I quickly leafed through it, saw some writing and handed it to my wife to put somewhere else. She stuck it in a drawer inside the house.

I should slow down the story for a moment and give you this tidbit.

We still get mail delivered to our house for previous owners. Most of it looks like junk mail, but from time-to-time we get stuff that looks important. Shortly after we moved in we got what looked like a birthday card, addressed to one of our homes previous owners.

My wife went on Facebook to see if she could track the people down. Lets just call them Steve and June. Sure enough, somebody recognized their names and got them in touch with us.

Steve and June drove by the house a few days later and picked up the envelope. Steve gave us a small mailing address sticker with their current info in case anything else ever showed up at the house. They were a bit older and very friendly.

On Valentine's Day, my wife decided to get a jump start on her spring cleaning and was cleaning out some drawers. She found the book and we decided to give it a better look.

I started reading entries. The book begins in January, 1967, when a high school junior starts recording notes about her new boyfriend, Steve. Every couple of days there is a new entry and June talks about going to school events, dinners and dances. She talks about getting glasses and her drivers permit.

But she mostly talks about Steve. "I love him so much," she writes on many pages.

The journal continues on with two years worth of entries. June talks about decorating the school for her prom, taking pictures before dinner and the dance... and even eludes to 'necking' in the car with Steve.

At the very end of the book, June says that she knows she will marry Steve.

My wife and I looked at each other. We knew we had to get the book to them. After a little more looking Lisa found the mailing label with their address and we drove over to their house, just a few miles away.

I noticed in the window their was a sign with 'Steve and June' on it.

I rang the doorbell and a few moments later the door opened. It was Steve, holding back his giant dog.

"You're Steve, right?"

"Yes, that's me," he said.

"We bought your old house a few years ago and found this on a shelf... we thought you might like to have it. It looks like your wife's old diary."

Steve turned the book in his hand and smiled at what he was holding.

"Well, thank you very much!"

I turned and got back in the car. Lisa and I slowly backed out of their driveway and we both agreed we wished we could have been there when they started reading the journal entries together. How cool it must be to read an over 50 year old diary documenting your first few years together as high school sweethearts.

It was a really cool way to celebrate our Valentine's Day.

Chris Farber / Y105