Monday around 4:30, after a reasonably busy day,  I was out for my walk, thinking I had all my St. Valentine’s Day bases covered. As I walked along, her name popped into my head, “Dorothy”, my stepmother. I forgot to get her a card.  After my walk I was all set to go up to Walgreen’s and pick out a card to take over with some food I planned to share with her.

Mrs CorC? texted before I had a chance to go. I explained the dilemma and she offered to pick up a card for us.  Good. One less trip to make. She came home with a card and nice little selection of Ghirardelli  Chocolates.

St Valentine’s Day comes.  I go by Dorothy’s with her food, and her chocolates and her card.  She is blown away that we remembered her on St. Valentine’s Day.

“I haven’t gotten a card in years!”

Now I am a pretty cynical SOB around holidays exploited by Hallmark, Godiva Chocolates, DeBeers Consolidated Mines and all the others.  What I thought was simply a nice gesture turned into something else when I saw Dorothy’s response.  She was genuinely touched that people remembered her on a special day.

The takeaway for all you readers is that one never knows how thoughtful a simple, almost trivial,  gesture can be.