We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day at our house at all, but I was reading in the paper on the weekend how it’s still really big with the grade school crowd — exchanging those little paper valentines with cheesy puns on them is still big business. It got me thinking about Valentine’s Day when I was in grade 4. My mom bought me a card set and I started by giving all the best ones to my friends, then I filled out some for most of the other kids in the class. In the end I had a card for everyone in the class except this one guy named Jerry, who was kind of an outcast. In retrospect I can see that he wasn’t mean in a bullying kind of way, just a tough kid from a rough neighbourhood who didn’t have much skill at making friends. We were all afraid of him anyway and I was happy enough to avoid the whole situation.

But the night before Valentine’s Day I had a change of heart, and I told my mom that I had left out one person from my class and needed her to get me another card. She insisted on going through the class list (sent home by the teacher for card-writing purposes) to find out who it was. I think she was curious, but it was a painful process for me, with me spending the whole time rolling my eyes saying, “Mom, I know who it is! Come on!” Anyway, after confirming the lone outcast was Jerry, she did go to the store to get me another card, which I think was pretty awesome of her.

The next day we handed out our valentines in a free-for-all and Jerry didn’t get very many, but for every one he did get, he called out a really loud “Thank you!” at the top of his lungs. When I dropped mine off he yelled, “Thank you Lynn!” and I blushed with embarrassment for being called out for associating with Jerry, but at the same time, I felt really really happy and proud of myself. These days I can still hear, “Thank you Lynn!” in my head and it makes me smile.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Jerry!